Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries
- Assistant Professor in Natural Hazards
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About
I am an Assistant Professor in Natural Hazards, in a joint appointment between the departments of Geography and Earth Sciences. I am also the head of the Cambridge Complex and multihazard research group, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. I work broadly on multihazard, in particular focusing on landslides, volcanoes, cryospheric hazards, and the interactions between these. I am open to discussing project ideas with potential students within this broad remit.
Prior to joining Cambridge, I worked as a Research Associate in Glaciology at the University of Liverpool, a Senior Research Associate in Multi-Hazard Risk Modeling at the University of Oxford, and as an Assistant Professor in Physical Geography at the University of Nottingham. I was awarded my PhD from the University of Minnesota (USA), and earned my BSc at the University of Edinburgh and the University of British Columbia (Canada).
I lead the Cambridge Complex and Multihazard research group (CoMHaz). Please contact me to learn more or get involved.
Research
Some specific areas I am currently working on are:
- Evaluating hazard and risk at ice-clad volcanoes. Despite being by far the most deadly type of volcanic eruption over the past century, many aspects of glaciovolcanic systems remain poorly understood. This is particularly important and timely to study given the rapid changes these areas are undergoing in a warming climate.
- Large scale landslide detection using satellite imagery, including development of new methods for detecting landslides and assessing the quality of inventories.
- Developing novel methods to detect movement in digital imagery, in particular applied to the mapping of ice velocities and detection of slow-moving landslides.
- Understanding the two-way interactions between glacial retreat and landsliding. Glacier retreat can increase landslide frequency and magnitude, but also be affected by landslide emplacement in various ways.
Teaching and supervision
I teach broadly in the area of Natural Hazards at an undergraduate and masters level.