Student Profiles

Colin Robins

Unique Opportunity
As second-year soils emphasis Ph.D. student in the geoscience department, I am chiefly interested in soil geomorphology, which is the study of relationships between soil-forming processes and landscape change. I came to UNLV because of unique, exciting, interdisciplinary desert systems projects that faculty here in the geoscience department are conducting.

Bright Lights and Natural Beauty
I especially enjoyed a week-long American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) — geoscience department camping trip to the spectacular national parks in southern Utah, which included a 17-mile hike through the "hands-down awesome" Canyonlands National Park.

More generally, I have enjoyed having friends visit from out-of-town so that I can show them both the bright lights of Las Vegas, and the beauty of the natural landscapes surrounding the city.

Broadening Horizons
My faculty mentors, the GPSA, and the Graduate College at UNLV have all helped me become a better student and a better researcher, by encouraging me and giving me the opportunity to do field work, to learn new laboratory techniques (I'm a big nerd), and to attend national and international conferences in places such as Salt Lake City and Philadelphia. These kinds of experiences help me ask better questions, broaden my knowledge base, and I also have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

A Great Place to Be
UNLV is a great place to network and to do research — I did not expect to have so many resources to draw on here. I hope to teach and to conduct research in soil geomorphology, geoarchaeology, or quaternary landscape evolution, and I hope to do so with as many international contacts as possible. I am particularly interested in finding ways to minimize adverse interactions between people and geomorphologic processes.

Colin Robins