Rate My Professor Michael Kinsela

Dr. Michael Kinsela serves as Lecturer in Coastal and Ocean Geoscience in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, School of Science, College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy, a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Marine Science, and a Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Enterprise from the University of Sydney. Kinsela's research specializations encompass coastal geomorphology, marine geology, morphodynamics, natural hazards and risk, physical oceanography, remote sensing, seabed mapping, sedimentology, spatial analysis and GIS. His primary academic interests center on the geomorphology and dynamics of barrier-estuary coasts, spanning beaches, dunes, estuaries, deltas, the shoreface, and continental shelf. He examines their origins and evolution through geological time using field-based physical sampling, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and numerical modelling to elucidate how ocean processes, sea-level changes, and sediment-system dynamics influence landform evolution and hazards like coastal erosion. Kinsela emphasizes underwater coastal processes, employing seafloor mapping and sampling to reveal seabed drivers of coastal change.

Prior to academia, Kinsela was Senior Coastal and Marine Scientist at the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment from 2012 to 2022, contributing to coastal hazards risk management and climate change assessments. He developed the Figure Eight Pools Wave Risk Forecast, initiated the NSW Nearshore Wave Data Program, and co-founded the CoastSnap community beach monitoring initiative, now featuring hundreds of stations across over 30 countries. At Newcastle, he has earned the Coastal Achievement Award for CoastSnap (2023), Teaching Excellence Award for Earth Science curriculum redesign (2023), and Student Experience Excellence Award for the East Coast Tsunami Risk voyage (2022). Notable publications include 'Shoreface controls on barrier evolution and shoreline change' (2018), 'Sedimentary features and sediment transport pathways on the southeast Australian shoreface-inner continental shelf' (2023), 'Migration and welding of an estuarine barrier-spit driven by delta evolution and storms' (2023), and 'CoastSnap: A global citizen science program to monitor changing coastlines using smartphones' (2023). Kinsela contributes to UNESCO's IGCP 725 project and presented at the UNH Ocean Seminar (2023). His efforts advance coastal change forecasting, sediment budgeting, and adaptive management for resilience against storms and sea-level rise.