The Community That Changed a Career and a Scientific Field

Distinguished Career Award recognizes Tulane professor Nicole Gasparini for advancing open science, mentoring the next generation of researchers and helping reshape computational Earth science.

Across the steep mountains of the Andes, rivers are constantly reshaping the landscape. In Hawaii, differences in rainfall create dramatically different patterns of erosion. Around the world, these slow-moving forces are writing Earth's history one river valley at a time.

For Nicole Gasparini, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University, understanding those processes has become a career. By combining field observations with computer models, she studies how rivers carve through bedrock, how mountains evolve over millions of years, and how scientists can test ideas about the forces that shape our planet.

It was not an obvious career path for someone who didn't grow up hiking, camping, or dreaming about becoming a geologist. Gasparini describes her younger self instead as a nerd who played sports and happened to be good at math. Unsure of what she wanted to pursue when she entered college, she gravitated toward mathematics and computer science and quickly discovered she had an aptitude for both.

Still, something was missing.

Climate change was becoming part of the public conversation, while environmental success stories such as efforts to combat acid rain and repair the ozone hole demonstrated that science could help address problems on a global scale. Gasparini wanted to find a way to put what she jokingly calls her "math superpowers" to work for good. Earth science gave her that opportunity, and computer modeling provided the bridge between the two worlds.

Although her own research ultimately developed around fundamental questions about landscapes rather than applied environmental science, that desire to use science to understand and address the world around her remains an important part of what she teaches.

Over nearly two decades, Gasparini has also become a leading voice in a scientific community dedicated to making numerical tools for understanding Earth's surface more collaborative and accessible. That commitment recently earned her the Distinguished Career Award from the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS), recognizing not only her scientific contributions, but her leadership in helping researchers around the world learn, share, and build upon one another's work.

For Gasparini, the recognition carries special meaning because it comes from the community that has shaped nearly every stage of her professional life.

"This organization has given so much to me. My students have benefited so much from it, and I've tried to help grow this community. To be recognized by the people you respect the most is really all that you can ask for."

When Gasparini was a graduate student in the late 1990s, computational modeling occupied the fringes of geomorphology. Most researchers built their careers through field observations, and many questioned whether computer simulations could meaningfully explain how landscapes evolved. Scientists who developed their own models were also often reluctant to share software they had spent years building.

"I would go to conferences and people would say, 'I don't believe this modeling stuff,'" Gasparini recalled. "I was this timid little graduate student surrounded by all these people who didn't think I was doing real earth science."

The scientific landscape has changed dramatically since then. Today, computational modeling is fundamental to Earth surface science, helping researchers understand everything from mountain building and river erosion to coastal evolution and how changing climates may affect river dynamics.

Much of that transformation has been fueled by organizations like CSDMS, a National Science Foundation-supported community created to promote open-source software and collaboration among scientists studying Earth's changing surface.

Gasparini joined Tulane in 2008, just as CSDMS was beginning to establish itself. The timing would shape the trajectory of her career.

"It became my intellectual home," she said.

For Gasparini, that description means much more than finding colleagues with similar research interests. CSDMS became the springboard for much of the science she has pursued as a professor. Her research may involve field work, data analysis and questions about particular landscapes and processes, but her expertise in modeling has repeatedly allowed her to approach those questions in ways that might otherwise have been impossible.

It also gave her a professional community where she felt completely at home.

"It's like my chosen family," Gasparini said. "When I'm in that community, they understand me. They understand what I'm doing and why. And they are just as excited about it as I am. They see the value in my contributions. They want me at the table."

"The modeling I do would not be possible without CSDMS," she added. "It's been the place where I can learn, teach others, and be around people who understand what is behind what I do."

Rather than simply benefiting from that community, Gasparini has spent much of her career helping build it.

She has collaborated on National Science Foundation projects, contributed to modeling software used throughout the research community, and became one of CSDMS's most dedicated educators. At annual meetings, she regularly teaches workshops that introduce researchers to computational tools while helping them understand not simply how the software works, but how models can be used to answer meaningful scientific questions.

That educational mission became increasingly important as computational modeling grew more common. Giving researchers access to powerful software, Gasparini realized, wasn't enough. Early-career scientists also needed to learn how to think with models, formulate hypotheses, and connect computer simulations with observations collected in the field.

Since 2020, she has helped lead CSDMS's annual summer school, where graduate students and early-career researchers learn computational modeling alongside scientists and software engineers from around the world. When Gasparini travels to present her own research, she frequently incorporates training sessions designed to give participants skills they can immediately apply in their own work.

For Tulane students, those connections have sometimes taken on lives of their own.

Recent Tulane PhD graduate Sam Anderson met Angel Monsalve at a CSDMS summer school. The two weren't assigned to work together but discovered overlapping research interests through conversations during the program. They stayed connected and eventually developed a model together to better understand flooding and sediment transport in Anderson's field area in New Mexico's Guadalupe Mountains.

Gasparini wasn't orchestrating the collaboration. In fact, with Monsalve based in Idaho, she didn't initially realize how extensively the two were working together. Their collaboration ultimately produced published software, which Anderson used to better understand the evolution of the landscape he studied.

Another recent PhD graduate, Laurent Roberge, attended the summer school before successfully applying to the CSDMS Summer Scholars program. When a research project revealed that existing models weren't sufficient for what he needed to accomplish, Roberge spent six weeks in Boulder working directly with CSDMS software developers to build something new.

The process was not always linear. The software developers would recommend one approach, Roberge and Gasparini would discuss another, and the project evolved through the back-and-forth that often defines research. Ultimately, Roberge developed the model he needed, contributing to published work that also included a scientist from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

For Gasparini, creating those connections is intentional.

"Something I love doing, and that my students have said they appreciate, is that I always try to have them work with teams that span universities," she said. "Establishing a network can often be key in the job search, or in finding your passion, or being successful."

Just as importantly, she believes students benefit from encountering scientists who approach problems differently than she does.

"It's important for early-career scientists to learn from many scientists, not just their advisor," Gasparini said. "This gives them a stronger research foundation, in my opinion."

That philosophy extends beyond graduate education and computational modeling.

When asked about her favorite experiences conducting field research, Gasparini didn't choose a scientific discovery or breakthrough. She thought about her undergraduate students.

Claire Hudson began conducting research in Gasparini's lab during the first semester of her freshman year and remained involved through graduation, including during some summers. One of her projects involved analyzing data from Puerto Rico, and Hudson was scheduled to join the research team there in summer 2020. The pandemic derailed those plans, but eventually she got her opportunity.

It was Hudson's first experience conducting field work. The team included Tulane researchers as well as graduate students and a professor from Stanford University. A woman graduate student from Stanford took Hudson under her wing, something Gasparini remembers as particularly meaningful because she did not have any women graduate students in her own group at the time.

The reality of field work was considerably less glamorous than its surroundings might suggest. There were long hikes, holes to dig and soil and rocks to haul, all while working in intense heat.

Hudson thrived.

Gasparini believes part of that success came from the people around her. The Stanford graduate student helped Hudson feel included, while the Stanford professor also became a mentor. In the less formal environment of field research, professional relationships formed that extended beyond Tulane.

"The field is a less formal setting, and those experiences and the bonds formed can be very important," Gasparini said. "I love connecting early-career scientists with scientists beyond Tulane."

Another undergraduate, Olivia Borako, discovered Gasparini's research after taking her hydrology course. When a graduate student needed help with field work in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, Borako volunteered.

The experience was grueling. Temperatures soared in the desert, shade was scarce and some days required hiking more than seven miles while carrying enough water to remain hydrated. One particularly demanding trek stretched to 11 miles.

Gasparini wasn't on the trip, but the graduate student leading the work returned with stories of Borako's relentless enthusiasm.

"Olivia was a superstar," Gasparini said.

What began as one difficult summer experience developed into something much larger. Borako continued working in Gasparini's lab during subsequent semesters and eventually completed a senior thesis on the hydrology of ephemeral rivers, waterways that do not flow year-round.

More importantly to Gasparini, she began seeing hydrology everywhere.

When heavy rain flooded New Orleans streets, Borako would excitedly explain the hydrology to friends, who sometimes responded by rolling their eyes. She had learned concepts in Gasparini's classroom that suddenly allowed her to understand processes unfolding around her every day.

"Seeing a student make those connections is truly amazing," Gasparini said. "Seeing a student get excited about science is the absolute best."

Gasparini's own curiosity remains just as expansive.

Her research examines how rivers shape landscapes over thousands and millions of years. By comparing computer simulations with observations from places such as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Northern California and the Andes, researchers can test ideas about erosion, rainfall and mountain building and better understand why Earth's surface has evolved the way it has.

Now, another technological transformation may be beginning.

Just as computer modeling revolutionized Earth science during Gasparini's career, artificial intelligence could change how researchers make sense of enormous collections of satellite imagery, elevation maps, measurements of rock properties, erosion data and field observations. Gasparini sees AI not as a replacement for traditional science, but as another way to connect those pieces and potentially improve predictions about how landscapes respond to changing climates and human activity.

"I think AI will really help us put together these different pieces of data to understand where we're going with all of this," she said. "Instead of only looking backward, we'll be able to look a little more forward."

Ask Gasparini which question she most wants to answer next, however, and choosing only one proves difficult.

"I would love to finish up all the projects I've started that never made it over the finish line," she joked. "That alone would take me 10 years."

Then the possibilities start pouring out: how climate change is affecting river flows around the world, how landscapes might respond to wildfire over the next 50 years, the hydrology of New Orleans, or almost any question involving water and changes to the land surface.

"I get excited about everything," Gasparini said. "If you told me that from now on I could only study how climate change is affecting flow in rivers worldwide, or how landscapes will change over the next 50 years from wildfire, or study New Orleans hydrology, or really anything related to water and land surface change, I'd be thrilled."

"I am not excited about one thing," she added. "I am excited about everything."

It is a fitting perspective for a scientist who has watched her field transform around her.

The young researcher who once stood at conferences listening to established scientists question whether computational modeling belonged in geomorphology has watched those same approaches become essential to the discipline. Along the way, Gasparini helped build something larger than the models themselves: a culture in which scientists share their work, students learn from networks of researchers extending far beyond their own universities, and advancing science means creating opportunities for others to advance with you.

The Distinguished Career Award recognizes that journey. But Gasparini's own description of CSDMS perhaps explains its significance better than any award citation could.

"These are my people."