My research is on water resource security. Primarily, I use isotope hydrology to track groundwater resources through managed aquifer recharge projects and mountain catchment headwaters. I use stable and naturally-occurring low-level radioactive isotopes to understand the connections between atmospheric processes, surface waters, and groundwaters.

I previously was a UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, and I earned my PhD at the University of Utah Department of Geology and Geophysics.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1615-3530

2021, Ph.D., Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

2020, Global Change and Sustainability Center Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

2013, B.A., Geosciences, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Azhar, Chakraborty, Visser, Liu, Lerback, and Oerter. 2025. Machine Learning Prediction of Tritium-Helium Groundwater Ages in the Central Valley, California, USA. Water Resources Research. 61(1): p. e2024WR038031. DOI: 10.1029/2024WR038031

Lerback, Bibby, Danielsen, Garguilo, Grande, Harm, Oerter, Minn, and Visser. 2024. How Rains and Floods Become Groundwater: Understanding Recharge Pathways with Stable and Cosmogenic Isotopes. Hydrological Processes, 38(12). DOI:10.1002/hyp.70020

Lerback, Bowen, Bagge, Heberer, Cocke, and Bricker. 2024. Bonneville Basin Critical Zones: Spring Chemistry and Gastropod Ecology in Playa-Margin Wetlands. Utah Geological Association Publication 51, 1-18. DOI: 10.31711/ugap.v51i.144

Lerback, Bagge, Bowen. Evaluation of aqueous gastropod shells as groundwater radiocarbon proxies across species and sites. 2023. Radiocarbon. DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2022.103

Lerback, Bowen, Humphrey, Fernandez, Bernau, Macfarlan, Schniter, and Garcia. 2022. Geochemistry and provenance of springs in a Baja California Sur mountain catchment. Groundwater. 60(2): p.295-308. DOI: 10.1111/gwat.13177

Lerback, Hynek, Bowen, Bradbury, Solomon, and Fernandez. 2019. Springwater provenance and flowpath evaluation in Blue Lake, Bonneville basin, Utah. Chemical Geology. 529: p.119280.

• 2021 – 2023, University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2017, Shlemon Scholar for Engineering Geologists