David joined Geological Sciences as a Research Assistant Professor in 1991 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996. David received a B.S. in geology from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in geomorphology from the University of California at Berkeley. His primary research interests concern landscape-forming processes and their interactions with other natural systems. Montgomery's dissertation research focused on controls on channel initiation in steep and low-gradient landscapes. Sustained interest in relationships between hillslope and fluvial processes motivates continuing research on sediment production, erosion mechanisms, and sediment transport through channel networks.
Current research includes projects focusing on hillslope, fluvial, and tectonic geomorphology.
An understanding of the linkages between the physical processes which generate and redistribute sediment in natural landscapes is necessary to provide a basis for understanding impacts of human activity and climate change on both geomorphic and biologic systems. Montgomery is leading a research program in Mountain Drainage Basin Geomorphology to develop methods for analyzing and predicting geomorphic response to both natural processes and anthropogenic disturbance. A major goal of this program is to develop models of the physical environment necessary for understanding landscape development and ecological response to disturbance. This program involves field studies of geomorphic processes and development of digital terrain models for predicting the spatial distribution of erosional processes, channel morphology, and sediment production and routing. Parallel research efforts focus on slope instability, fluvial processes in mountain drainage basins, and the uplift and sculpting of mountain ranges using a combination of field experiments, field observations, and modeling.