Profile | Utah Valley University

Faculty Member

Dr. Matt Olson

Send a Message
Phone: 801-863-6964
Mail Stop: 179
Curriculum Vitae: Matthew Olson CV

Biography

In addition to geoscience education, I am interested in understanding how changing mountain glaciers and snowpacks are modifying water resource availability locally and abroad. I am actively involved in local snowpack monitoring and modeling in Utah and the western US, investigate glacier retreat in Himalaya-Karakoram, and have been collaborating on understanding the existence and significance of rock glaciers in Utah. These projects revolve around filling in gaps in our understanding of the terrestrial hydrology system for watersheds impacted by seasonal snow and permanent ice. I primarily leverage optical satellite remote sensing, meteorological instrumentation, and numerical modeling to understand these physical systems.

My perspective is rooted in understanding the interconnected relationships within the environment. Through the observation of physical laws and relationships, we acquire invaluable insights for the stewardship of Earth's physical and biological systems. The undeniable interconnection between society and the environment means that societal changes are inherently tied to environmental shifts. It is more important now than ever that we improve our understanding of how Earth systems will react in the face of ongoing change.

I am passionate about Earth science education and promote hands-on, experiential learning in the classroom. I believe Earth science concepts are best understood when they align with firsthand experiences.

Education

PhD, University of Utah, 2022

Major: Geography

Graduate Certificate in Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Utah, 2018

MS, University of Utah, 2017

Major: Geography

BS, Brigham Young University, 2014

Major: Geological Sciences

Teaching

GEOG 1000

Introduction to Physical Geography, Summer 2026

GEOG 3650

Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Spring 2026

GEOG 3440

Geospatial Data Science, Spring 2026

GEO 2020R

Science Excursion, Spring 2026

GEOG 4890R

Student Research in Geography, Spring 2026

GEOG 4890R

Student Research in Geography, Spring 2026

ENVT 3330

Water Resources Management, Spring 2026

Presentations

Frazier, Kaya , Olson, Matthew , Robledano, Alvaro , Joint Western/Eastern Snow Conference 2026, "A comparison of snow albedo measurement methods following dust-on-snow events in the Provo River Basin of Utah", Western Snow Conference, Denver, CO. (May 14, 2026)

Knowlton, Max , Olson, Matthew , Joint Western/Eastern Snow Conference 2026, "Assessing Snow Storage Capacity and Remotely Sensed Physical Properties in the Central Wasatch Range of UT", Western Snow Conference, Denver, CO. (May 14, 2026)

Olson, Matthew , Meyer, Joachim , Lang, Otto , Skiles, S. McKenzie, Joint Western/Eastern Snow Conference 2026, "Estimating runoff efficiency for snowmelt dominated tributaries in the Jordan River Basin (Utah) with spatially distributed snow modeling and in-situ streamflow measurements", Western Snow Conference, Denver, CO. (May 14, 2026)

Robledano, Alvaro , Meyer, Joachim , Olson, Matthew , Joint Western/Eastern Snow Conference, "Combining process-based snow modeling with geostationary satellite cloud cover data_ assessing iSnobal radiation enhancements in the Upper Colorado River Basin", Western Snow Conference, Denver, CO. (May 13, 2026)

Olson, Matthew , Robledano, Alvaro , Meyer, Joachim , Skiles, S. McKenzie, American Geophysical Union 2025 Fall Meeting, "Recent iSnobal enhancements_ Improving radiation forcing inputs through integrated topographic downscaling and cloud parameterization in the Upper Colorado River Basin", American Geophysical Unikon, New Orleans, LA. (December 18, 2025)

Olson, Matthew , 16th United Nations International Mountain Day at Utah Valley University, "Mountain Glaciers and Snowpack as Critical Water Towers", Student Engaged Learning, Orem, UT. (December 2, 2025)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Davies, Isaiah , Anderson, Leif S., Thorne, Michael S., Olson, Matthew , Munroe, Jeff , Morriss, Matthew , (2026) "Mass Addition to Timpanogos Rock Glacier_ Debris-Covered Snow and the Importance of Interannual Variability in Headwall Erosion and Climate" (Issue: 7, vol. 53). https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL121482

Olson, Matthew , Rupper, Summer , Forster, Richard R., "Automated Landsat processing to monitor supraglacial debris cover evolution " . Remote Sensing of Environment.

Olson, Matthew , Robledano, Alvaro , Meyer, Joachim , Hu, J. M., Leemann, Mattis , Skiles, S. M., "Downscaling HRRR Radiation for Distributed Snow Modeling_ Part 1 - Incoming Shortwave Partitioning and Topographic Correction" .

Robledano, Alvaro , Olson, Matthew , Meyer, Joachim , Hu, J. M., Skiles, S. M., "Downscaling HRRR Radiation for Distributed Snow Modeling_ Part 2 - Topographic Correction of Incoming Longwave and Evaluation of Combined Radiation Updates" . Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Mora, Jacob , Zahn, Geoffrey , Olson, Matt , Rocks, Sally , (2025) "Watershed urbanization alters aquatic plant mycobiomes through the loss of rare taxa" . Mycologia.

Zahn, Geoffrey , Olson, Matt , (2024) "Urbanization_and_Endophytes: manuscript code" . Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/records/12822622

Awards

SPOT Award

Office of Academic Affairs - April 2, 2025

Service on the University Curriculum Committee, including work accomplishing the new General Education program changes.

Annual Faculty SAC Award

COS Scholarly Activities Committee - March 28, 2025

Faculty summer award stipend to complete preliminary snowpack research.

Dean's Distinguished Service Award

GEOG 1000

Introduction to Physical Geography PP, Fall 2022

GEOG 1000

Introduction to Physical Geography PP, Fall 2022

Olson, Matthew (Panelist), Abbot, Ben (Panelist), Parry, Darren (Panelist), Healing Waters_ Restoring our relationship with Utah Lake , "Array", , UVU Museum of Art, Orem, UT. (September 16, 2025)

Robledano, Alvaro (Presenter & Author), Hu, Michelle (Co-Author), Meyer, Joachim (Co-Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Liu, Yijing (Co-Author), Skiles, S. McKenzie (Co-Author), 92nd Annual Western Snow Conference, "Updating the Longwave Radiation Scheme of the iSnobal Model_ Assessing Improvements in Complex Terrain in the Upper Colorado River Basin", , Western Snow Conference, Bozeman, MT. (May 21, 2025)

Abraham, Roshan (Presenter & Author), Beardall, Sarakay (Presenter & Author), Knowlton, Max (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Frazier, Kaya (Co-Author), Knowlton, Andrew (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "A dusty shade of winter_ Monitoring dust and seasonal snowpack properties to improve snowmelt prediction in the central Wasatch ", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Olson, Matt (Presenter & Author), Meyer, Joachim (Co-Author), Robledano, Alvaro (Co-Author), Skiles, S. Mckenzie , Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Decomposing and downscaling solar radiation components to improve mountain snowpack prediction in the Upper Colorado River Basin ", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Frazier, Kaya (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt , Beardall, Sarakay (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Field sampling to validate satellite measurements of dust-on-snow impacts in northern Utah ", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Tanner, Marcus (Presenter & Author), Karns, Hayley (Co-Author), Bryant, Dylan (Co-Author), Anderson, Leif (Co-Author), Morriss, Matthew (Co-Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Inventory and analysis of rock glaciers and periglacial landforms in Utah’s Uinta mountains", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Bryant, Dylan (Presenter & Author), Karns, Hayley (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Tanner, Marcus (Co-Author), Morriss, Matthew (Co-Author), Anderson, Leif (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Mapping and terrain analysis of Utah’s rock glaciers within the Colorado Plateau physiographic province ", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Davies, Isaiah (Presenter & Author), Anderson, Leif (Co-Author), Tochimani-Hernandez, Ivan (Co-Author), Thorne, Michael (Co-Author), McCreary, Molly (Co-Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Morriss, Matthew (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Modeling rock glacier genesis based on observations from the Wasatch Range, Utah", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Morriss, Matthew (Presenter & Author), Anderson, Leif (Co-Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Wasicko, Zane (Co-Author), Rocky Mountain GSA Regional Meeting, "Snow, slope, and stone_ Machine learning reveals key predictors of rock glacier formation in the Wasatch range of Utah, USA", , Geological Society of America, Provo, UT. (May 19, 2025)

Naple, Patrick (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Skiles, S. McKenzie (Co-Author), American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, "Daily High Resolution Dust on Snow Radiative Forcing_ Fusing MODIS and Landsat-OLI Retrievals Using a Random Forest Model", , American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. (December 10, 2024)

Olson, Matt (Presenter & Author), Meyer, Joachim (Co-Author), American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, "Evaluating techniques for downscaling meteorological forcing inputs in the iSnobal energy balance model", , American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. (December 10, 2024)

Frazier, Kaya (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Great Plains - Rocky Mountain Regional American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, "New Snow Monitoring Program at Utah Valley University_ Preliminary Research to Sculpt Future Plans", , AAG. (October 26, 2024)

Karns, Hayley (Co-Presenter), Bryant, Dylan (Co-Presenter), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), UVGIS 3rd Quarterly Meeting, "Creating a GIS Database_ The Utah Rock Glacier Inventory, Hayley Karns and Dylan Bryant (UVU)", , Utah Valley GIS Users Group. (September 17, 2024)

Knowlton, Andrew (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), 2024 Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Estimating Grain Size in the Wasatch Front using Radiative Transfer Modeling and Landsat-OLI", , UVU Earth Science & College of Science, Utah Valley University. (April 5, 2024)

Christensen, Noah (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), 2024 Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Remote Sensing Hydrothermal Alterations in the Marysvale Volcanic Field with Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imagery", , UVU Earth Science & College of Science, Utah Valley University. (April 5, 2024)

Karns, Hayley (Presenter & Author), Bryant, Dylan (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), 2024 Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Rock Glacier Inventory of Utah", , UVU Earth Science & College of Science, Utah Valley University. (April 5, 2024)

Olson, Matt (Presenter & Author), 2024 Winter Speaker Series, "Glacier changes in High Mountain Asia", , Paleoglaciers Working Group, Virtual. (March 1, 2024)

Knowlton, Andrew (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), UCUR 2024, "Estimating Grain Size in the Wasatch Front using Landsat-OLI", , Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research, Utah Valley University. (February 16, 2024)

Christensen, Noah (Presenter & Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), UCUR 2024, "Remote Sensing Hydrothermal Alterations in the Marysvale Volcanic Field; an inter-comparison of Landsat-OLI and ASTER Imagery", , Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research, Utah Valley University. (February 16, 2024)

Ward, Emily Geraghty (Presenter & Author), Gold, Anne (Co-Author), Moon, Twila (Co-Author), Khan, Alia (Co-Author), Schoenemann, Spruce (Co-Author), Olson, Matt (Co-Author), Thompson, Laura (Co-Author), Warner, Al (Co-Author), American Geophysical Union 2023, "Measuring the impacts of Interactive Environments and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on student learning of polar places and spaces", , AGU, San Fransisco, CA. (December 11, 2023)

Olson, Matt , Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Improvements in monitoring supraglacial debris cover change in the Himalaya-Karakoram", , Utah Valley University, Orem, UT. (May 15, 2023)

Knowlton, Andrew , Olson, Matt , Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Locating Dust Hot Spots on Snow in the Uintah and Wasatch Ranges of Utah Using Remote Sensing", , UVU, Orem, UT. (May 15, 2023)

Olson, Matt , BYU Seminar Series, "Forcings and Feedbacks in the Cryosphere", , Brigham Young University, BYU Campus. (March, 2023)

Olson, Matthew , American Geophysical Union, "Improvements in monitoring supraglacial glacier debris cover changes in the Himalaya-Karakoram", , Chicago, IL. (December, 2022)

Olson, Matt , AEG Utah Chapter Meeting, "Forcings and Feedbacks in the Cryosphere", , American Environmental and Engineering Geologists, Salt Lake City, UT. (November 10, 2022)

Olson, Matt , UVU Earth Science Seminar, "Forcing and Feedbacks in the Cryosphere", , UVU, UVU. (August, 2022)

Olson, Matthew , American Geophysical Union, "Trends in Snow Albedo and Radiative Forcing by Light Absorbing Particles over High Mountain Asia from Remote Sensing", , San Fransisco, CA. (December, 2019)

Olson, Matthew , American Geophysical Union, "Spatial and temporal changes in aerosol radiative forcing on glaciers in the eastern Himalaya", , Washington, D.C.. (December, 2018)

Olson, Matthew , Western Snow Conference, "A New GrainSize Lookup Table for the Airborne Snow Observatory", , Albuquerque, NM. (April, 2018)

Olson, Matthew , American Geophysical Union, "Topographic forcing and related uncertainties on glacier surface energy balance in High Mountain Asia", , New Orleans, LA. (December, 2017)

Olson, Matthew , American Geophysical Union, "Impacts of Topographic Shading on Surface Energy Balance of High Mountain Asia Glaciers", , San Fransisco, CA. (December, 2016)

Mishra, Shruti , Rupper, Summer , Olson, Matthew , (2021) "Grand Challenges of Hydrologic Modeling for Food-Energy-Water Nexus Security in High Mountain Asia" (vol. 3). Frontiers in Earth Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2021.728156

Olson, Matthew , (2019) "Terrain Induced Biases in Clear-Sky Shortwave Radiation Due to Digital Elevation Model Resolution for Glaciers in Complex Terrain" (vol. 7). Frontiers in Earth Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00216

Olson, Matthew , (2019) "Impacts of topographic shading on direct solar radiation for valley glaciers in complex topography" (Issue: 1, vol. 13). The Cryosphere. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-29-2019

Olson, Matthew , Array, Array , (2018) "A New GrainSize Lookup Table for the Airborne Snow Observatory" . 86th Annual Western Snow Conference. https://westernsnowconference.org/node/1852

Skiles, S. McKenzie, Clark, Steven , Olson, Matthew , (2017) "Constraining Physical Controls on Snow Hydrology Along the Wasatch Front, UT," . 85th Annual Western Snow Conference. https://westernsnowconference.org/node/1830