Rate My Professor Andrew Gunn

Dr. Andrew Gunn is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment within Monash University’s Faculty of Science. His research centers on process geomorphology and the coevolution of planetary surfaces—particularly those composed of sediment—with geophysical fluids such as atmospheric flows and liquids including oceans, lakes, and rivers. Gunn investigates how external perturbations like climate change influence these dynamics across Earth and other Solar System bodies, including Mars, Titan, Pluto, and Venus. He integrates diverse methodologies, encompassing fieldwork, remote sensing, laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical modeling, to decode patterns emerging from these interactions. His work addresses critical areas aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as climate action and life on land.

Gunn obtained his PhD in Geomorphology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021, with a thesis on scale-dependent coupling between aeolian flow and form. He previously earned a Bachelor of Marine Science (Honours) in Physical Oceanography from the University of Tasmania in 2015 and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Melbourne in 2014. After his doctorate, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Geological Sciences at Stanford University from 2021 to 2022 before joining Monash University as a lecturer in 2022 and advancing to Senior Research Fellow. Gunn has secured significant funding, including a $414,000 Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award in 2023 for his project on landscape-climate disequilibrium in dune fields, and serves as Chief Investigator on multiple ARC grants. His accolades include the 2024 American Geophysical Union Luna B. Leopold Early Career Award for Earth and Planetary Surface Processes, accompanied by the Robert Sharp Lecture, and the Monash Faculty of Science Research Excellence by an Early Career Researcher Award in 2024. Notable publications encompass “Complementary classifications of aeolian dunes based on morphology, dynamics, and fluid mechanics” (Earth-Science Reviews, 2024), “Formation and reorganization time scales of aeolian landscapes” (Geology, 2023), “A depositional model for meandering rivers without land plants” (Sedimentology, 2023), “What sets aeolian dune height?” (Nature Communications, 2022), and “21st-century stagnation in unvegetated sand-sea activity” (Science Advances, 2022). His research has been featured in top journals and media outlets including The Conversation and Smithsonian Magazine.