Rate My Professor Isaac Larsen

Larsen has advanced knowledge in soil production, chemical weathering, landslide-driven erosion, bedrock incision, and canyon formation. Key publications include "Landslide erosion controlled by hillslope material" (Nature Geoscience, 2010), "Landslide erosion coupled to tectonics and river incision" (Nature Geoscience, 2012), "Rapid soil production and weathering in the Southern Alps, New Zealand" (Science, 2014), and "The extent of soil loss across the US Corn Belt" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021), which documents soil erosion rates exceeding formation by over 100 times in Midwestern agricultural fields, affecting soil carbon budgets. His contributions have earned him election as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2025, recognizing his interdisciplinary application of geochemistry, remote sensing, geochronology, and modeling to geomorphic challenges; the Luna B. Leopold Young Scientist Award from the American Geophysical Union Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Focus Group in 2017; and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award for spring 2020 at the University of Salzburg, Austria, to teach graduate courses and research Alpine erosion rates.