Hayden joined the Civil Engineering department at Montana State University in the fall of 2023. Hayden graduated from the University of Maine Orono with a BS in Civil Engineering with a concetration in water resources and a minor in climate science. While at UMaine Hayden was part of the WPES (watershed process and estuary sustainability) research group where he worked on projects such as: Determining the vulnerability of different stream reach catagories to logging in the North Maine Woods, found gyres and pollutent transport in Frenchman Bay, and (after revieving an undergraduate research grant) set up a new gauge station closest to the head of tide on the Penobscot River in Maine. Hayden also has a background in the outdoor rec world as a trip manager with Maine Bound at UMO and helping to run leadership trainings here at MSU, Hayden enjoys bringing these skills into the research world.

At MSU Hayden is doing research in the Sub-Zero Research Lab looking at the mechanics of water moving through snow during both solar melting events and rain on snow events. The goal is the connect micro / lab scale processes to the watershed scale.