M.S. Student
Water Resources Engineering
College of Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University

Email: vandevod _at_ oregonstate _dot_ edu

Biography

Growing up near Cleveland, my formative years were spent in and around the Great Lakes. From there, I transitioned to Fairbanks, Alaska where I completed an undergraduate degree in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, got a job doing research with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), and most importantly, met my wife, Ashley. I have spent 3 years with CRREL researching important cryosphere aspects such as permafrost engineering, ice mechanics of inland lakes, Alaska river ice jams, and small-scale infrastructure in extreme cold climates all while living in a cabin in the woods without running water. Now, I’m excited to join the CryoSIGHT Team and begin the journey at OSU. I’m looking forward to working with talented team mates on important climate research questions! Outside of academic pursuits, I still enjoy anything to do with water. You can most likely find me on the water in at least two of its physical states: canoeing, kayaking, fishing, swimming, skiing or ice climbing!

Research Interests

snow hydrology, mountain hydrology, glaciers, permafrost, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, numerical modeling, climate change, hydrologic extremes, hydrologic disturbance

Projects

Being a first-year grad student, I’m currently pursuing a Master’s in Water Resource Engineering, and my research will ideally be related to river ice in Alaska. It will hopefully take a current model that predicts ice thickness, and attempt to fine tune it further to account for things like the thickness of the snow layer on a frozen river.