Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Interests

Geoarchaeology; Hydrology and Water Quality; Geomorphology; Spatial Statistics; Gender, Science, and Human Rights; Mesoamerica; Mediterranean and Near East; Iceland.

Biography

Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach is Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas-Austin, where she is Raymond Dickson Centennial Professor #1. She recently completed her term as Department Chair (2014-2018), as the only woman to ever lead the Department. Dr. Luzzadder-Beach is Associate Faculty of the Theresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and was Fellow of the C.B. Smith Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations from 2014-2019. She is also Affiliated Faculty of the Center for European Studies and the Bernard and Audrey Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at UT. She was Professor of Geography and Associate Provost at George Mason University, where she was a faculty member for over 20 years prior to arriving at UT Austin. She is currently the Past President of the American Association of Geographers (President, 2018-19). Dr. Luzzadder-Beach was awarded, along with Dr. Tim Beach, the 2010 AAG G.K. Gilbert Outstanding Research Award in Geomorphology, and in 2013 she was recognized with the GMU College of Science Outstanding Publication Award. In 2018 Drs. Luzzadder-Beach and Beach were both selected as CSU Chico's Distinguished Alumni for the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She specializes in physical geography, hydrology and geomorphology, water chemistry, geoarchaeology, geostatistics, and gender, science and human rights, with field research in Mesoamerica, California, the Mediterranean and Near East, and Iceland. Dr. Luzzadder-Beach’s research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Geographic Society, among other sources, publishing more than 65 peer reviewed book chapters and journal articles. Dr. Luzzadder-Beach is the Founding Director of the Water Quality and Environmental Hydrology Lab in the Department of Geography and the Environment at UT Austin. She received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Minnesota- Minneapolis, and her Bachelor of Arts in Geography from California State University at Chico. 

Courses

Recent Research News

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/public-affairs/news/ancient-maya-canals-and-fields-show-early-and-extensive-impacts-on-tropical-forests

T. Beach, S. Luzzadder-Beach, S. Krause, T. Guderjan, F. Valdez, Jr., J. C. Fernandez-Diaz, S. Eshleman, C. Doyle. 2019. “Ancient Maya wetland fields revealed under tropical forest canopy from laser scanning and multiproxy evidence.”  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(43):21469–21477. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910553116. https://www.pnas.org/content/116/43/21469.short?rss=1

Press Sources covering 10/22/19 PNAS paper: https://pnas.altmetric.com/details/67880504