Adam Young is a Researcher in the Integrative Oceanography Division and Center for Coastal Studies at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Young is also a research affiliate of the Scripps Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation.

Young’s research focuses on coastal physical processes and quantitative coastal evolution on time scales important to modern society. He is specifically interested in coastal erosion, hazards, geomorphology, sea level rise, sediment budgets, and anthropogenic influences on the coastal system.

Young uses field based and remote sensing instrumentation including lidar, seismometers, ocean wave sensors, video monitoring, drones, photogrammetry, and micro-erosion meters to quantify coastal process interaction. His studies have focused intensively on the California coast, but he has also studied other coastlines including Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, Hawaii, and North Carolina. 

Young’s research has received state and national awards, international media attention, and recognition by the California State Senate for excellence.

Young received his BS in civil engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and his MS and PhD from UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.  He previously worked as a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and Scripps and was a visiting fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia and the University of Massachusetts Boston.