Nicolás Pérez-Consuegra

I am a fluvial geomorphologist and conduct multidisciplinary research at the nexus between earth’s surface processes, climate, and biodiversity. I also have a strong background in biology and paleontology and thus I can link processes and timescales of geological, life and climate evolution. I am interested in questions such as how precipitation rates and tectonic uplift rates influence erosion in mountain ranges, how past changes in paleoclimate may have affected river incision and how dynamic reorganization of river basins can result in diversification of aquatic species such as fish.

Additionally, I am highly interested in using the field of geomorphology for solving problems of societal concern. My interest in applied science has grown after experiencing the unprecedented environmental problems that my country Colombia and the rest of the world faces, such as climate change and anthropic transformation of ecosystems, which are already causing increasing natural disasters related to floods, droughts and landslides.

Since September of 2021 I am a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, working with Dr. Taylor Perron.

Previously, I was a Graduate Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University. In my PhD I worked on tectonic geomorphology to untangle the uplift history of the northern Andes mountains in South America and to understand what controls erosion in tropical mountains.

I am a National Geographic Explorer (2018) and have previously been an intern for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, a Short-Term Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and a fellow at the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program at Cornell University. My work has been funded by several research grants including: the National Geographic Early Career Grant, the AGeS2 Awards for Geochronology (GSA), the AAPG Grants in Aid and the Geological Society of America Graduate Student Grant.

Photo in the Lengerke path that connects San Vicente de Chucurí and Zapatoca in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. Photo by V. Applewhite.

Photo on the Sogamoso Canyon, after the junction of the Chicamocha and Suarez rivers.

Map with location of collaborations that I have established as well as field locations where I have conducted research. D-E. Photos of potential field sites where I could take students to study geomorphic processes.