Samuel Munoz
Associate Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contact
- s.munoz@northeastern.edu
- 1 MSC
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Office
- 781.581.7370
Related Links
Research Focus
Sedimentary records of environmental change, paleoclimate and climate change, rivers and fluvial processes, hydroclimatic extremes
Education
- PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2015
Honors & Awards
- 2023 NSF CAREER Award
Research Overview
Sedimentary records of environmental change, paleoclimate and climate change, rivers and fluvial processes, hydroclimatic extremes
Earth Surface Systems Lab
The Earth Surface Systems Lab of Assistant Professor Samuel Muñoz studies hydrologic and climatic variability and its connections to the natural and built environment.
We are interested in how floods, droughts, and other climate-related hazards shape landscapes and societies across the land-sea interface.
Our interdisciplinary research combines geological and historical perspectives with statistical and Earth system models to improve societal preparedness and response to natural hazards.
Selected Research Projects
- Sedimentary signatures of large riverine floods to constrain risk and build resiliency
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Evaluating Patterns and Controls on Microplastic Accumulation in Floodplains
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Evaluating the Past and Future of Mississippi River Hydroclimatology to Constrain Risk via Integrated Climate Modeling, Observations, and Reconstructions
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Morphodynamic simulations of coastal storms and overwash to characterize back-barrier lake stratigraphies
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Collaborative Research: Morphodynamic Simulations of Coastal Storms and Overwash to Characterize Back-Barrier Lake Stratigraphies
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Collaborative Research: Re-evaluating Precipitation Extremes and Flood Hazard in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Hydrologic Sciences
- Collaborative Research: Extreme Floods on the Lower Mississippi River in the Context of Late Holocene Climatic Variability
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Paleo-Perspectives on Climate Change
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Wiman, Charlotte, Hamilton, Brynnydd, Dee, Sylvia G., Muñoz, Samuel E. (2021). Reduced Lower Mississippi River Discharge During the Medieval Era. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(3). 10.1029/2020GL091182
- S.E. Muñoz, T.J. Porter, A. Bakkelund, J. Nusbaumer, S.G. Dee, B. Hamilton, L. Giosan, J.E. Tierney, Lipid Biomarker Record Documents Hydroclimatic Variability of the Mississippi River Basin During the Common Era, Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12), 2020, e2020GL087237
- J.R. Walsh, J.R. Corman, S.E. Muñoz, Coupled Long-Term Limnological Data and Sedimentary Data Reveal Novel Control on Water Quality in a Eutrophic Lake, Limnology & Oceanography, 64(S1), 2019, S34-S48
- S.E. Muñoz, L. Giosan, J. Blusztajn, C. Rankin, G.E. Stinchcomb, Radiogenic Fingerprinting Reveals Anthropogenic and Buffering Controls on Sediment Dynamics of the Mississippi River System, Geology, 47(3), 2019, 271-274
- S.E. Muñoz, L. Giosan, M.D. Therrell, J.W. Remo, Z. Shen, R.M. Sullivan, J.P. Donnelly, Climatic Control of Mississippi River Flood Hazard Amplified by River Engineering, Nature, 556(7699), 2018, 95-98
- S.E. Muñoz, S.G. Dee, El Niño Increases the Risk of Lower Mississippi River Flooding, Scientific Reports, 7, 2017, 1772
Aug 02, 2023
How Low-Flow Events Are Affecting the Mississippi River
MES/CEE Associate Professor Samuel Muñoz’s research on “Mississippi River low-flows: context, causes, and future projections” was published in Environmental Research: Climate.
Jul 25, 2023
Can we do a better job of predicting river floods in New England?
MES/CEE Associate Professor Samuel Muñoz is using satellite imagery and AI to develop a predictive model for river flooding in New England.
Mar 27, 2023
NSF CAREER Award to Improve Flood Hazard Assessments
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Muñoz was awarded a $718K NSF CAREER award for “Sedimentary signatures of large riverine floods to constrain risk and build resiliency.”
Jan 18, 2023
Atmospheric Rivers can Lead to Massive Flooding and Deaths
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Munoz and CEE Professor Auroop Ganguly explain how atmospheric rivers can lead to devastating floods. What are atmospheric rivers? Will climate change make them worse? Main photo: In an aerial view, a car and a pickup truck are seen inside a sinkhole as another storm created by a series of atmospheric […]
Dec 05, 2022
Are Volcanoes Impacted by Climate Change? Or Is it the Other Way Around?
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Munoz was featured in the Phys.org article “Are volcanoes impacted by climate change? Or is it the other way around?“
Oct 25, 2022
Using Natural Barriers to Help Prevent Flooding
For those areas devastated by Hurricane Ian, Northeastern experts encourage residents to build in natural buffers to protect against flooding when rebuilding. With storms threatening to intensify, should Floridians stay or should they go? With hundreds of Floridians remaining in shelters weeks after Hurricane Ian devastated swathes of the Sunshine state, the question many residents […]
Jul 22, 2022
Record Temperatures Impacting Health and Infrastructure
CEE Professor Auroop Ganguly and MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Munoz have been predicting that climate change would lead to record-breaking temperatures that would affect people’s health and dangerous environmental conditions.
Jul 14, 2022
Investigating the Accumulation of Microplastics in the Environment
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Munoz, CEE Professor Edward Beighley, and MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins were awarded a $530K NSF grant for “Evaluating Patterns and Controls on Microplastic Accumulation in Floodplains.”
Apr 26, 2022
Exploring the Dangers of Microplastics
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Munoz and MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins are exploring how microplastics are accumulating in areas such as floodplains. Microplastics are everywhere, but their dangers largely remain a mystery, experts say Main photo: Samuel Munoz, Northeastern professor of marine and environmental sciences and civil and environmental engineering. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University They […]
Apr 06, 2022
NSF Backs Study of Mississippi River’s Response to Climate Change
MES/CEE Assistant Professor Samuel Muñoz was featured in the EurekaAlert article “NSF backs study of Mississippi River’s response to climate change“.