Robby Goldman

Research Areas

PhD Candidate, Department of Geology

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

Graduate College Research Fellow

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Department of Geology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), working with Dr. Trish Gregg to understand how stresses within a volcanic system influence magma propagation and eruption location. My 3-minute Research Live! talk (for which I won the Graduate College's 2017 People's Choice Award) provides a good overview. I am also working on a project funded by the NSF Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) at the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in collaboration with Dr. Wendy Stovall, Dr. David Damby (California Volcano Observatory) and Dr. Sarah McBride (USGS ShakeAlert). For my GRIP, I am evaluating how well posts and comments by the USGS Volcanoes social media group informed Hawaii's residents during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano. I even wrote a fun blog post on what got me interested in this topic!

Please visit my personal webpage for more information about me and my work!

Geodynamic models of volcano evolution

Science and Hazard Communication

Assessing flank eruption hazards and risk globally

In The News

Geology Graduate Student Robby Goldman Recognized for Leadership!
Robby Goldman, PhD Candidate in the Department of Geology, recently received special recognition from the Graduate College for his outstanding leadership service during his time as a PhD student. “I am truly humbled to have...
How do volcanologists manage stress? By publishing how it controls eruptions!
New Zealand’s Akaroa Volcano has been the focus of decades of research by geologists seeking to understand its eruptive history, which lasted 9-8 Ma. Some of Akaroa’s most intriguing features include a radial dike swarm and several lava domes exposed along the high-topography “crater rim” of the...
Conducting summer undergraduate research during the COVID19 Pandemic
The COVID19 pandemic is an unprecedented situation that has had wide reaching impacts on our campus community. Summer plans have been dashed for many of our Geology undergraduate students as internships and summer research experiences have been cancelled. Our undergrads rely on summer months to...