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Meet the group

Environmental Fluid Dynamics

Faculty and staff.

Harindra Fernando

Wayne and Diana Murdy Professor

Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University, 1983

Fluid mechanics; specifically turbulence in homogeneous, stratified, and rotating flows; double-diffusive phenomena; multiphase flows; oceanic and atmospheric flows, especially boundary layers and transport processes; industrial fluid mechanics; energy storage and extraction, urban air pollution; sustainability engineering, remote sensing.

Diogo Bolster

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, 2007

Environmental fluid dynamics (analytical, experimental and laboratory): transport and reactive flows in heterogeneous porous media; multiphase flows in porous media (related to CO2 sequestration); buoyancy driven flows; mixing; sustainable building ventilation; contaminant transport in low energy ventilated spaces; risk analysis; vortex rings.

Ahsan Kareem

Robert M. Moran Professor

Ph.D. University of Colorado, 1978

Aerodynamics; wind effects; fluid-structure interactions; Boundary layer, gust front and hurricane winds; turbulence stochastic simulation; computational wind engineering; wave-structure interactions; natural hazards; liquid sloshing; wind energy.

Andrew B. Kennedy

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Monash University, Australia, 1998

Coastal engineering; theoretical, computational and experimental techniques for nearshore waves, currents, and storm surge; coastal geomorphology; development and use of remote sensing techniques in the coastal zone.

Ken Christensen

Professor

Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana champaign, 2001

Experimental fluid mechanics, flows central to a range of energy, environmental and geophysical applications, turbulence interactions with multi-scale, complex topography, flow interactions and coupling with complex bedforms, multi[phase flow in porous media, microfluidics, develpment of advanced experimental diagnostics.

Iossif Lozovatsky

Research Professor

Ph.D. Russian Academy of Sciences, 1975

Physical oceanography; oceanic turbulence, microstructure, fine structure; nonlinear internal waves; ocean and coastal ocean boundary layers; air-sea interaction and corresponding mixing in the oceanic upper turbulent layer; nonlinear internal waves and turbulence in shallow marginal seas; turbulence closure for stratified flows using field data and laboratory experiments.

Steve A. Piacsek

Adjunct Professor

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1966

Geophysical fluid dynamics,estimates of the surface skin water temperature as modified by evaporation, ocean currents and atmospheric fronts; generation of internal waves by tides and flows over topography; environmental impact and source sustainability of power plants utilizing ocean thermal energy conversion, arctic ice distributions and recent and ice-free zones.

David Richter

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Stanford University, 2011

Simulating transition to turbulence in non-Newtonian fluids;computational techniques including direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation for studying turbulence in the atmosphere and ocean; turbulent exchange of heat, moisture, and momentum at the air-sea interface, developing tools for simulating multiphase systems including subsurface sediment transport and saltation.

Laura Leo

Visiting Assistant Professor

Ph.D. University of Messina, Italy, 2011

Atmospheric boundary layers, urban fluid mechanics, turbulence in complex terrain, atmospheric field mearsurements.

Sergey I. Voropayev

Research Professor

Ph.D. Russian Academy of Sciences, 1980

Oceanography; fluid mechanics; experimental and theoretical dynamics and interactions of vortex structures in stratified/rotating fluids; analytical solutions for basic structures; mathematical and numerical models of vortex structure interactions and experimental verification; applications to geophysical turbulence, oceanic vortex structures, mixing and transport phenomena in stratified/rotating flows; jet/wake dynamics.

Joannes J. Westerink

Professor

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984

Computational fluid mechanics; finite element methods; modeling of circulation and transport in coastal seas and oceans; tidal hydrodynamics; hurricane storm surge prediction; geophysical turbulence modeling; numerical modeling of the convection-diffusion and Navier-Stokes equations; environmental fluid mechanics.

Damrongsak Wirasaet

Assistant Research Professor

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 2007

Computational fluid mechanics; numerical modeling of the convection-diffusion and Navier-Stokes equations; discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods; modeling of circulation and transport in coastal seas and oceans.

Reneta Dimitrova

Associate Research Professor

Ph.D. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2002

Modeling of atmospheric flows; human health and pollution; mesoscale processes and their influence on the large scales; air emissions and air quality; computational fluid dynamics; wind energy

Eliezer Kit

Visiting Professor

Ph.D. Tel Aviv University, Israel

Turbulent Flows; Water waves and modeling of marine structures; Numerical investigation of bifurcation phenomena; Vortex dynamics

Alan Hamlet

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. University of Washington, 2006

Integrated modeling of climate variability and change, surface water hydrology, water resources systems, the built environment, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Stakeholder education and outreach programs in the Pacific Northwest, development of decision support systems and sustainable climate change adaptation strategies in the water sector, impacts of climate on renewable energy systems.

Julian Hunt

Visiting Professor

CB, MA, Ph.D, FIMA, FRS Cambridge University

Experimental and theoretical research in magnetohydrodynamics; Air polution dispersion models; Urban meteorology; turbulent and stratified flows; Wind energy; ocean-atmosphere dynamics

Silvana Di Sabatino

Visiting Professor

Ph.D. University of Salento,Lecce

Modeling of turbulent flows in atmospheric boundary layers; Urban fluid dynamics; Air polution dynamics

Qiang Zhong

PostDoctoral Fellow

Ph.D. Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2014

Colliding gravity currents; stratified flows; coherent structures in wall baounded turbulence; experimental and analytical techniques to explore these structures.

R. Scott Coppersmith

Research Engineer

B.S.EE Michigan Technological University

Embeddeed systems design and programming; Mechanical and electrical prototype design and fabrication; Laboratory test equipment design, instrumentation, signal conditioning and data acquisition systems.

Chris Hocut

PostDoctoral Fellow

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 2014

Environmental fluid dynamics (experimental and laboratory); atmospheric flows in complex terrain (mountainous or urban); air-sea interactions; wind energy; remote sensing; instrumented unmanned aircraft systems.

Ashish Sharma

PostDoctoral Fellow

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 2012

Atmospheric sciences and land/ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate models capable of resolving small-scale processes and impacts for future climate predictions/ targeted dynamical downscaling experiments with the goal of creating bridges between global, regional and micro-scale modeling.

Jesus Planella Morato

PostDoctoral Fellow

Ph.D. University of Girona, Spain, 2015

Turbulence in natural waters, microstructure measurements and data processing, turbulent patch identification in microstructure profiles, mixing in lakes, reservoirs and seas, intermittency of turbulence, methods of multifractal and statistical analysis.