Rate My Professor Joe Carlin

Carlin's research centers on coastal and shallow marine geology, exploring how these systems evolve under natural forcings and anthropogenic influences, including climate change and sea-level rise. His projects span locations such as the Monterey Bay continental shelf, central Texas continental shelf, Seal Beach Wetlands, and Upper Newport Bay in Orange County, California. He employs sediment coring, X-ray and CT scanning, and microfossil analysis to reconstruct paleoenvironments and assess human impacts on the geological record. Notable publications co-authored by Carlin include "A diatom-inferred water-depth transfer function from a single core in the Salton Sea, California (USA)" (Journal of Paleolimnology, 2023), "Holocene hydroclimatic variability recorded in sediments from Maddox Lake, northern California Coast Range" (Quaternary Research, 2023), "Younger Dryas to early Holocene (12.9–8.1 ka) limnological and hydrological change at Barley Lake, California" (Quaternary Research, 2021), and "Evidence for insolation and Pacific forcing of late glacial through Holocene climate in the central Mojave Desert, Silver Lake, CA" (Quaternary Research, 2015). Carlin received recognition for outstanding faculty teaching efforts in 2019 and contributes to university governance through service on the Academic Senate (term ending 2027) and Graduate Education Committee. He has presented public lectures, including "Behind the Scenes at the National Science Foundation" during CSUF Research Week.