Jonathan Phillips is professor emeritus of Earth Surface Systems at the University of Kentucky, and previously held faculty positions at East Carolina and Texas A&M Universities. His main research interests involve Earth surface processes; the interactions among and coevolution of landforms, soil, hydrological systems, and ecosystems; scale issues in geosciences; and spatial structure of landscapes. He has been especially active in exploring nonlinear dynamics and complexity in Earth Surface systems.
Phillips is the author of Mysterious Ways: Contingency, Emergence, and Selection in Nature (Oxford University Press, 2025); Landscape Evolution: Landforms, Ecosystems, and Soils (Elsevier, 2021) and Earth Surface Systems: Complexity, Order, and Scale (Blackwell, 1999). He has also published more than 200 articles in refereed journals of geomorphology, hydrology, soil science, geology, geography, ecology, environmental science, and geophysics.
He currently splits his time between New Bern, NC, Myrtle Beach, SC, and Lexington, KY. Thoughretired from his university faculty job, he continues to be active in research, writing, and consulting. He conducts much of his fieldwork from a kayak, and derives much enjoyment from his grandchildren.