Faculty Directory

Biography

Dr. Eric Anderson is an Associate Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Hydrologic Science & Engineering Program at the Colorado School of Mines. His research focuses on the interactions between the hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere, wherein he uses numerical modeling to study Earth’s largest lakes and rivers, extreme storms (meteotsunamis), coastal flooding, lake-effect precipitation, and the impacts on the ecosystem.

Formerly, Dr. Anderson was a physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), where he developed real-time hydrodynamic-ice forecast systems for lakes and rivers to support navigation, spill response, search and rescue operations, drinking water safety, and numerical weather prediction.

Education

Labs & Research Centers

Publications

Awards & Honors

• NOAA Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, “Seasonal overturn and stratification changes drive deep-water warming in one of Earth’s largest lakes”, 2025 – Nature Communications
• NOAA Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, “Improvements to Lake-Effect Snow Forecasts Using a One-Way Air-Lake Model Coupling Approach”, 2021 – J. Hydrometeorology
• U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, For improving lake-effect snow and ice forecasts through rapid transition of an innovative coupling of weather and coastal hydrodynamic models – 2021
• National Academy of Sciences, Kavli Fellow – 2020
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) – 2019
• U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, For development of an operational hydrologic forecast system for the Niagara River for hydropower and water resource management – 2019
• Best Paper, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering – “Ice forecasting in the next-generation Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS)”, 2018