Research Focus
My research focuses on studying Earth and Environmental Systems through data science, modeling, and computation. My research generally focuses on climate and hydrological modeling throughout the western United States, with a specific emphasis on snowpack, temperature, and precipitation. This work is done to gain a better understanding of our climatological and hydrological regimes, but also to inform drought, flooding, and fire hazards.
Areas of Research
Climate Science
Hydrology
Cryospheric Science
Hydrometeorology
Earth Science AI/ML Modeling
Geospatial Modeling and Remote Sensing
Environmental Data Science
Paleoclimate & Glaciology
Publications
Fleetwood, R. M., Johnson, J. V., & Downs, J. (2026). A machine learning–based quantitative reconstruction of Greenland Ice Sheet retreat during the Early Holocene using geochronological markers [Manuscript in preparation].
Fleetwood, R. M., Bocinsky, R. K., Jencso, K. G., & Hoylman, Z. H. (2026). Estimated snow water equivalent using an operational deep learning model [Manuscript in preparation].
Cuzzone, J., Briner, J., Otiniano, G., Truax, O., Thomas, E., Steig, E., Hakim, G., Tulenko, J., Morlighem, M., Schlegel, N.-J., Nowicki, S., Acharya, S., Anderson, J., Caron, L., De Vernal, A., Downs, J., Folie-Boivin, E., Fleetwood, R., Han, H. K., … Young, N. (2026). Greenland Ice Sheet to fall below its Holocene minimum size by 2300. In Review. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9962320/v1
Presentations
Graduate
Undergraduate
Applegate, B., Fleetwood, R. M., & Jepson, O. (2025). Honors pre-college programming: A toolkit
for program development and assessment [Conference presentation]. Western Regional Honors
Conference.
McDonough, P., Feiling, E., Fleetwood, R. M., & Jepson, O. (2025). Honors students engage wicked
problem of climate justice [Conference presentation]. Western Regional Honors Conference.
Fleetwood, R. M. (2025). Estimating snow water equivalent from the Montana Mesonet [Conference
poster]. University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/umcur/2025/amposters/25
Fleetwood, R. M. (2025). Implementing studio-style learning in geographic information system and
cartography education [Conference poster]. University of Montana Conference on
Undergraduate Research.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/umcur/2025/amposters/26
Fleetwood, R. M. (2025). Application of the fast marching method to the reconstruction of Greenland
Ice Sheet retreat across the Early Holocene period [Conference presentation]. University of
Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research.
Grants
Total: $80,000
$5,000 - [pending appropriation] Montana Water Center Graduate Student Fellowship
$75,000 - W.A. Franke Freshwater Conservation Initiative Fellowship
Honors & Awards
2026 - National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Honorable Mention
2025 - University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR) Best Poster Presentation in the Physical Sciences