Laurel Larsen

Key takeaways

Laurel Larsen belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Laurel Larsen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Laurel Larsen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Laurel G. Larsen is an associate professor in Hydrology at Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University. She was former associate professor of earth systems science for the Department of Geography and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley where she also heads the Environmental Systems Dynamics Laboratory. Her areas of expertise include hydroecology, geomorphology, complex systems, and environmental modeling.

Early life and education Larsen spent much of her childhood playing in and around water in Florida. Her parents both worked in science, as a NASA shuttle engineer and a state water manager. At the age of 16, Larsen began her undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis where she eventually graduated summa cum laude with majors in environmental studies and systems science and mathematics. She then proceeded to complete her master's degree in earth and planetary sciences at the same institution under Ray Arvidson's mentorship. Larsen's master's thesis is titled Development and Testing of a Coupled Heat and Moisture Transfer Model to Assess Subsurface Moisture Gradients and was completed in 2003. Larsen moved on to the University of Colorado Boulder at age 21 and began her doctoral studies in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering department. At the University of Colorado Boulder, Larsen studied fluvial geomorphology, aquatic ecology, and fluid mechanics. She began researching the Florida Everglades and how they evolved to create the unique slough and ridge landscape that is essential to the Everglades ecosystem. In 2008, she completed her dissertation on Hydroecological Feedback Processes Governing Landscape Self-Organization in the Florida Everglades.

Career and research Laurel Larsen has worked in academia since she earned her PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2008. She began her professional research with the United States Geological Survey National Research Program as part of the Hydroecology of Flowing Waters Project. She continued working with the United States Geological Survey National Research Program until 2016 on various other research topics. Some of this research included work on the differences between the hydrogeomorphology of restored and unrestored streams within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and what kind of impacts restoration can have on the surrounding ecosystem. Larsen was hired at the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor for the Department of Geography in 2013. In 2018, she was made an associate professor for the Geography and Civil and Environmental engineering department at the University of California, Berkeley and currently holds this position. Larsen's research focuses on the fields of hydrology, geomorphology, environmental fluid mechanics, complex systems, environmental modeling, aquatic ecology, restoration ecology, wetlands, sediment transport. She is most known for her achievements in research on the Florida Everglades which have influenced numerous restoration efforts in the area. The Florida Everglades have a unique ecosystem composed of ridges with more vegetation and sloughs with less vegetation. Water flows through the entire ecosystem parallel to these "ridge-and-slough" structures providing essential services to the ecosystem; however, human impacts have disrupted the flow of water through the Everglades. Larsen's research has answered questions about the formation of this landscape that were previously considered unanswerable and her research has been able to dictate decisions on how to best restore the natural landscape from anthropogenic changes.

Awards and honors Some of Larsen's most recent awards include:

2018, Donath Medal (Young Scientist Award), Geological Society of America 2015, Hellman Faculty Fellow award, UC Berkeley 2015, NSF CAREER award 2013, Kohout Early Career Award, Geological Society of America Hydrogeology Division

Publications Larsen has authored or co-authored over 100 published scientific papers and has been cited over 1200 times. Her most notable publications focus on the formation of aquatic landscapes such as the Florida Everglades and strategies for restoration of these spaces. These topics were previously considered untestable due to the large difference in timescales between the forces forming these landscapes (i.e. hydraulic transport) and the resulting changes in geomorphic and biological evolution. Larsen has been able to quantify and evaluate these systems using mathematical models that consider hydraulic transport on the scale of seconds to months and geomorphology and biology over the course of decades and centuries. Larsen has also published a picture book called "One Night in the Everglades" in conjunction with the Long Term ecological Research Network, an organization funded by the National Science Foundation.

Personal life

Larsen seemingly enjoys hiking and racing bicycles, both cyclocross and road cycling. Larsen appears interested in cooking and food philosophy as well as claiming artistic ventures such as poetry, guitar, dancing, and visual art.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Laurel Larsen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Laurel Larsen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Laurel Larsen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Laurel Larsen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Laurel Larsen

In research: Laurel Larsen appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Laurel Larsen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Laurel Larsen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Living people, UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty, United States Geological Survey personnel, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Laurel Larsen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Laurel Larsen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Laurel Larsen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Laurel Larsen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Laurel Larsen in simple terms?

Laurel G. Larsen is an associate professor in Hydrology at Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University.

Why does Laurel Larsen matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Laurel Larsen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Laurel Larsen.