•  Joe Collins, C. Fred T. Andrus, Robert J. Scott, Amy Moe-Hoffman & Evan Peacock (2020) Refit and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Freshwater Mussel Shells from the Tillar Farms Site (3DR30), Southeast Arkansas, Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 45:1, 39-63, DOI: 10.1080/01461109.2019.1677999

• Collins, J.D., Gill, T.E., Langford, R.P. 2018. Characterizing Formation Processes of Rimrock Lake, a Late Pleistocene-Holocene playa, Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon (USA), using an End-Member mixing analysis (EMMA). Journal of Quaternary Science. 

•   Ponette-González, A. G., Collins, J. D., Manuel, J. E., Byers, T. A., Glass, G. A., Weathers, K. C., & Gill, T. E. 2018. Wetdust deposition across Texas during the 2012 drought: An overlooked pathway for elemental flux to ecosystems. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123. https:// doi.org10.1029/2018JD028806

•   Junran Li, Tarek Kandakji, Jeffrey A. Lee, John Tatarko, John Blackwell III, Thomas E. Gill, Joe Collins. 2018. Blowing dust and highway safety in the southwestern United States: Characteristics of dust emission “hotspots” and management implications. Science of the Total Environment 621:1023-1032.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.124

•   Collins, J.D., O’Grady, P., Langford, R.P., and Gill, T.E. 2017. End-member mixing analysis (EMMA) applied to sediment grain size distributions to characterize formational processes of the main excavation block, Unit 2, of Rimrock Draw Rockshelter (35HA3855), Harney Basin, Eastern Oregon (USA). Archaeometry 59 (2):331-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12243

•   Collins, J.D., 2012. Assessing Mussel Shell Diagenesis in the Modern Vadose Zone at Lyon’s Bluff (22OK520), Northeast Mississippi. Journal of ArchaeologicalScience 39:3694-3705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.012

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Invited Talks:

•  Collins, J.D. "The Discovery of Global Warming and the Empirical Evidence Humans are the Cause". Middle Tennessee State University. Climate Crises Town Hall, November 21, 2019

• Collins, J.D.“Characterizing formation processes of a Late Pleistocene-Holocene playa, Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon (USA).” University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Geosciences, March 30, 2018.

•  Collins, J.D. “What freshwater mussel shells can tell us about Native American subsistence.”  University of North Texas, Department of Geography and the Environment, Crosscurrents seminar series. Nov. 10th, 2017.

Conference Presentations (5 most recent):

•   Collins, J. D.,M.W.  Bowen, T.E. Gill, R. Langford. “Using the lithostratigraphic record preserved within two playa wetlands to reconstruct paleoenvironmental change and geomorphic response, Harney Basin, Oregon”. Geological Society of America (GSA), November 2018

•   Collins, J.D.,M.W. Bowen, T.E. Gill, R. Langford. “Using the lithostratigraphic record preserved within two playa wetlands to reconstruct paleoenvironmental change and geomorphic response, Harney Basin, Oregon”. 49th Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, September 2018

•  Gill, T.E. and J.D. Collins. “Paying Paleoclimatology Forward: an academic multigenerational journey linking professional development to curriculum development. Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, July 2017

•  Collins, J.D., T.A. Miller, T.E. Gill, R.P. Langford. “Stratigraphic Relationship and History of Two Late Pleistocene and Holocene Playas in the Harney Basin, Eastern Oregon, USA. Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting, October, 2017.

•  Collins, J.D.“Characterizing Sedimentary Processes of a Playa-Lunette System: A Case Study Along the Western Margin of the Harney Basin, Southeastern Oregon (USA).” Geological Society of American (GSA), September 2016

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•   Early Career Researcher (ECR) Travel Award, 49th Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, 2018

•   Water Resources Incentive Grant, Institute for Water Resources Science and Technology, Texas A&M University - San Antonio, 2017

•   Outstanding Doctoral Student, 2016, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso.

•   Geological Society of America Fellowship, 2015, Geological Society of America

•   The Jonathan O. Davis National Scholarship for Quaternary Studies, 2014, Desert Research Institute

•   Graduate Student Fellowship Incentive Award, University of Texas at El Paso, 2014

•   Douglas C. Kellogg Fellowship in Geoarchaeological Research, 2012, Society of American Archaeology

•   Sistrunk Endowed Scholarship, 2012, Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University 

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My primary research is in ancient arid and semi-arid environmental and climatic reconstruction - particularly using ephemeral alke and river systems as comprehensive, high-resolution archives of climate change - and modern atmosphere-lithosphere interactions such as aeolian and fluvial processes using aspects of geomorphology, geochemistry, and statistical modeling. Other research interests include the relationship between landforms, climate, and people; transportation, composition, and characteristics of both aeolian and fluvial sediments; North American geoarchaeology; Mars aeolian geomorphology; and the history and philosophy of modern geology. 

Current research projects include:

1. Reconstructing paleoclimate using ephemeral lakes (aka playas) and their marginal features in the Great Basin, USA.
2. Dust emission, transportation, and deposition across Texas - specifically during the 2012 drought.
3. Historic climatology of dust storms in El Paso, Texas
4. Analysis of fugitive dust emission from aggregate quarries and air quality in the San Antonio region, Texas.
5. Geomorphic analysis of landforms on Mars - specifically related to the Orson Welles impact crater.
6. Archaeological freshwater mussel geochemistry as proxy for past droughts

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