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Dr. Sheehan received his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 2021, where he studied geomorphology, surface processes and landscape evolution. He joined UD in 2023 after working as a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College, where he collaborated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build numerical models assessing how rivers and waterways will respond to future land use and climate change.  

Dr. Sheehan currently teaches SCI-210 (Dynamic Earth) and GEO-307 (Geomorphology). His research at UD falls into two categories: understanding how the Earth’s surface changed over the last several million years due to tectonics, climate and other forcings, and assessing how it will continue to evolve into the far future; and quantifying how human activities such as land use and climate change affect surface processes and predicting how these changes will impact society over the coming decades. His projects employ multiple techniques, including field (surface mapping, environmental data logging, erosion monitoring, photogrammetry), laboratory (radiogenic cosmogenic nuclide, optically-stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating) and numerical modeling components (landscape evolution modeling). 

Research interests

• Geomorphology, surface processes and landscape evolution
• Landscape evolution modeling
• River and reservoir sedimentation changes due to land use, climate change and dams
• Rural development effects on small watersheds
• River reorganization in the interior U.S.
• Escarpment retreat and evolution
• Lithologic effects on river evolution
• Geomorphic impacts of severe weather events

Courses taught

• SCI-210 (Dynamic Earth)
• GEO-307 (Geomorphology)

Selected publications

Sheehan, C.E. & Ward, D.J. 2020b. An Autogenic Cycle of Fluvial Transience in Dipping, Layered Rocks. Geophysical Research Letters: e2020GL090246. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090246

Sheehan, C.E. & Ward, D.J. 2020a. Migrating transverse escarpments in strike valleys on the Colorado Plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface125: e2019JF005260. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JF005260

Sheehan, C.E. & Ward, D.J. 2018. Late Pleistocene talus flatiron formation below the Coal Cliffs cuesta, Utah, USA. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 43: 1973–92. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4369