Dr. Richard Vachula is an interdisciplinary scientist focusing on the complex relationships between climate, fire, humans, and ecosystems. Additionally, Richard has a particular interest in fire as an Earth System and socio-environmental process. Much of Richard's research applies paleofire, paleoclimate, and paleoecology approaches with the goal of providing scientific insights to inform management and policy decisions. 

Richard grew up in the Midwest and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a Chancellor's Scholar and James Scholar. In 2015, he graduated with a BS in Geology and a BA in French Studies. He enrolled in graduate studies at Brown University, earning an MS (2017) and PhD (2020) in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. At Brown, he was advised by Yongsong Huang and Jim Russell, and was an affiliate of the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society (IBES). In 2020, Richard served as a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. In August 2020, he joined the Environmental Science and Policy program at the College of William and Mary as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. He has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Auburn University since January 2022.

At Auburn, Richard leads an interdisciplinary, collaborative research group composed of hardworking and creative students. He teaches courses through the Interdisciplinary Earth System Science (ESS) PhD program (e.g., ESS and Global Change, ESS Seminar) and the Department of Geosciences (e.g., Paleoclimatology, Dynamic Earth).

 If you are interested in working with me as an undergraduate researcher, graduate student (MS and PhD), or postdoctoral researcher, please contact me via email (rsv0005@auburn.edu) with a short description of your research interests and your CV/resume.