Dr. Murdoch’s teaching and research interests are in hydrogeology. He teaches an introductory course in applied hydrogeology, and advanced courses in the hydrogeology of U.S. aquifers and fractured rock hydrology. He also teaches a course in methods for analyzing geological processes, and he organizes the hydro field camp.

Murdoch’s recent research activities have included projects in environmental remediation, aquifer characterization, interaction between ground water and surface water, and effects of changing land use. He developed techniques for creating and applying hydraulic c fractures for environmental applications, and more recently he has been developing hydromechanical techniques for characterizing rock aquifers. Many of his projects involve innovative field or laboratory techniques with modeling coupled processes of flow, transport, and deformation.

Professor Lawrence Murdoch is a Task Leader on the Department of Energy, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Implementation Project "Radionuclide Waste Disposal: Development of Multi-scale Experimental and Modeling Capabilities" (2014-Present).