Matt Covington

Associate Professor

University of Arkansas

Matt Covington entered the University of Arkansas as an undergraduate with broad interests and completed undergraduate degrees in both physics and philosophy. After that, he pursued a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying the influence of galaxy mergers on the evolution of galaxies throughout the history of the universe. However, during his undergraduate and graduate years, Covington lived a second life as an expedition caver, exploring and mapping in some of the deepest caves in the world. These expeditions took him to Mexico, Peru, Sumatra, Alaska, China, Slovenia, Croatia, and other far-flung places. In the final year of his Ph.D., Covington's career took a dramatic shift as he decided to pursue research in geoscience, combining his passion for caves with his skills in mathematical modeling. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in physics, Covington began his first postdoc studying karst hydrology at the University of Minnesota, supported by an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship. Then he spent two years as an NSF International Research Fellow working at the Karst Research Institute in Postojna, Slovenia. Starting in fall of 2012, Covington returned to the University of Arkansas as a professor in the Department of Geosciences.