Wai Allen is a Assistant Professor of Geology in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. 

Prior to this appointment, Wai completed a Postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona's Arizona Laserchron Center and at Haskell Indian Nations University. Wai completed both her PhD and M.S. degrees in Geology at Purdue University. Wai also received her B.Sc. in Geology from Fort Lewis College. Additionally, Wai is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and is a first generation scholar.

Her research interests focus on long-term and large-scale earth surface processes that include mountain building, erosion, sediment transport, and sediment deposition. The ancient record of these processes provide useful archives for reconstructing past geography, tectonics, and climate utilizing sedimentary basins. Wai's projects focus on the Cenozoic strike-slip record of the Denali Fault system in southern Alaska and more recently the Devonian record of the Temple Butte Formation in the Grand Canyon.

More recently, Wai is interested in what Indigenous data sovereignty looks like in geology and what research practices make the geosciences inclusive and ethical. See research interests for more information.

Click here for Wai's contact information and current research opportunities at her lab