Sarah Williams: Postdoctoral Associate
Position/What you do at U of R?
I'm a postdoc in the DRIP lab working with Rachel Glade. I've been interested in the complex behaviors and related probabilistic physics of sediments on Earth, especially those sediments making up river beds and hillslope surfaces.
Where are you from?
I call Fayetteville, AR home but I moved around a bit as a child in both Texas and Arkansas.
What got you interested in Earth and Environmental Sciences?
To be frank I was indoctrinated from a young age. My mom has been a geology professor at community colleges since I was a kid, and she used to drag me along on her field trips. I swore I'd never be a geologist and instead do physics (rebellion, you know?) And that worked for about a semester, until I realized understanding the nature world across scales was actually the coolest part of physics. Turns out Earth science related to almost everything in my undergraduate physics classes so I could easily double major. Plus, I could go outside instead of always being in a dank basement lab and even get to color in class thanks to sed-strat classes. I found the perfect advisor for grad school who helped me hone this intersectional interest in Earth science and hardcore physics. So here we are, grown out of my rebellious phase, as a Geophysicist who likes dirt.
What do you enjoy most about U of R?
I like the small campus! Everyone has been so nice, and the undergraduates are so smart. I'm so appreciative of getting to interact with them. It's been great coming into a lab and campus community where people are excited to learn.
What is the one thing that instantly makes your day better?
Seeing a groundhog on campus!! It makes me so incredibly happy to see those chubby little guys munching away in the grass. In my house, we call it hog spotting and cross our fingers we spot on hog on the drive in to work.
Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies?
I have picked up so many hobbies and only a few have stuck. Here's looking at you, mandolin . However, I consistently come back fiber arts including weaving on a loom and felting. I have little from these ventures I'd actually want to show people but it's a great creative outlet. My goal in the next year is to get into fly fishing and start tying my own flies.