Fluid Dynamics on the Margin of Rotational Control
J. McWilliams, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UCLA
McWilliams received his college degrees in Applied Mathematics: a B.S. (with honors) in 1968 from Caltech and a M.S. in 1969 and Ph.D. in 1971 from Harvard. After holding a Research Fellowship in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Harvard (1971-74), he worked in the Oceanography Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he became a Senior Scientist in 1980. In 1994 he became the Louis B. Slichter Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCLA, while retaining a part-time appointment at NCAR. In 2002, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
McWilliams' primary areas of scientific research are the fluid dynamics of Earth's oceans and atmosphere, both their theory and computational modeling. Particular subjects include the maintenance of the general circulations; climate dynamics; geostrophically and cyclostrophically balanced (or slow manifold) dynamics in rotating, stratified fluids; vortex dynamics; planetary boundary layers; planetary-scale thermohaline convection; the roles of coherent structures in turbulent flows in geophysical and astrophysical regimes; numerical algorithms; statistical estimation theory; and coastal ocean modeling.
In the past several years he has helped develop a three-dimensional simulation model of the U.S. West Coast that incorporates physical oceanographic, biogeochemical, and sediment transport aspects of the coastal circulation. This model is being used to interpret coastal phenomena, diagnose historical variability in relation to observational data, and assess future possibilities.
A longer biography can be found at:
http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~jcm/
The Influence of Vegetation on Channel Transport
Dr. Heidi M. Nepf
Dr. Heidi M. Nepf is a Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil/Environmental Engineering, Parsons Laboratory. Her research focuses on shallow aquatic systems, including lakes, rivers, wetlands and coastal waters, with an emphasis on the influence of vegetation in mean and turbulent transport. Nepf did her academic work (Bucknell University, PhD, Stanford University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship) in engineering and environmental hydraulics. Nepf was Co-Director, with Prof. Culligan, Educational Outreach for the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences [1997-2003] and received several awards including National Science Foundation CAREER Award, MacVicar Faculty Fellow - Institute award for outstanding teaching, Bose School of Engineering Teaching Award, MIT, and Samual M. Seegal Prize - for inspiring student in pursuing excellence.
A longer biography can be found at:
http://web.mit.edu/nepf/www/
Real time hydro-environmental modelling and visualization system for public engagement
Joseph Hun-wei LEE
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Redmond Chair of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Professor Lee obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA (1969-1977). He joined the University of Hong Kong in 1980, and has served as Associate Dean of Engineering (1999-2000) and Dean of Engineering from 2000 to 2003. He is currently the Redmond Chair of Civil Engineering, and Director of the Croucher Laboratory of Environmental Hydraulics. Professor Lee has conducted research on various problems in environmental hydraulics – including multiple-jet induced flow in shallow water, numerical modelling of coastal circulation, mixing of buoyant plumes in a tidal current, turbulence modelling of puffs and thermals, algal blooms and short term dissolved oxygen dynamics. He has written one monograph, edited six books and published over one hundred articles in international journals and books. Over the past two decades, he has served as advisor to international consultants and the Hong Kong government on numerous environmental projects that include the Hong Kong Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, Deep Bay Sewage Strategy Study, Yuen Long Bypass Floodway, Kai Tak Transfer Scheme and the Tai Hang Tung Storage Scheme. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (1992), Croucher Foundation Senior Research Fellow Award (1999), and the Innovation Award for Construction Industry of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (2002). He is the Chairman of the Asia and Pacific Division (APD) and a Council Member of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR). More details can be found at the website: http://www.hku.hk/civil/envhydraulics/staff/jhwlee.htm
Bio
W. Rockwell Geyer
W. Rockwell Geyer is a Senior Scientist, former Chair of the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and previous director of the Rinehart Coastal Research Center at WHOI. He is a former member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council. Geyer received his Bachelor’s degree in Geology at Dartmouth College in 1977 and his PhD in Physical Oceanography at the University of Washington in 1985. He specializes in estuarine and coastal transport processes, with particular interest in stratified flow dynamics and sediment transport. He has worked in many different estuaries and coastal environments, including the Amazon outflow, the fjords and estuaries of the Pacific Northwest, numerous estuaries and tidal channels in New England, the Hudson River, the Eel River plume in northern California, the western Gulf of Maine Coastal Current, and Singapore Strait. His research includes a blend of observational, process-studies and numerical modeling, directed both at basic research questions and applied problems of societal concern, such as harmful algal blooms and contaminant transport. WHOI has awarded Geyer is with the Mary Sears Chair for Excellence in Oceanography, and he received the Pritchard Award from the Estuarine Research Federation for his published contributions to estuarine physical oceanography.
Herbert Huppert
Herbert Huppert is the Foundation Director of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics in the University of Cambridge. He was born and received his early education in Sydney, Australia, graduating in Applied Mathematics from Sydney University in 1964. He then completed a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, and came as an ICI Post-doctoral Fellow to the University of Cambridge in 1968 for what was meant to be a one-year sojourn. He has not yet left! The primary focus of his research has been on the fluid-mechanics of oceanography, meteorology, and fluid motions within the “solid” Earth. His style is to build nonlinear mathematical models, which require analytical, approximate or numerical solution, and compare the results with specially designed laboratory experiments. He then aims to extrapolate these new concepts to describe quantitatively large-scale natural events, such as volcanic eruptions, melt migration in the crust of the Earth, sedimentary structures, ice formation in polar seas and orographic cloud patterns in the atmosphere. His most recent research interests include carbon dioxide sequestration, an area with far-reaching implications not only from a scientific perspective but from that of public policy. He is the Chair of the Royal Society Working Group on Bioterrorism which produced a Report entitled ‘Making the UK Safer’ in April 2004. Since its publication he has frequently advised various UK Government Departments. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987. In 2005 he was awarded the Arthur L. Day Prize Lectureship from the US National Academy for contributions to the Earth sciences. He has been elected a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the American Physical Society. He was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2007.
A longer biography can be found at:
http://www.itg.cam.ac.uk/people/heh/index.html
The passage of internal waves from generation to propagation
Greg Ivey
Greg Ivey was raised in Western Australia and completed both a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Engineering at the University of Western Australia in Perth, before moving to the University of California at Berkeley where he completed his PhD in 1980. He subsequently held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Water Research Institute in Burlington, Ontario and as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra. Since 1988 he has been at the University of Western Australia where he is currently Head, School of Environmental System Engineering. His interests are in the area of geophysical fluid dynamics and stratified flows, and include small scale turbulent mixing, internal wave dynamics, convectively driven flows, stratified flow-topography interactions, wind-driven coastal flows, and the coupling of physical, biological and chemical processes. He is interested in the combination of field, numerical and laboratory techniques and in recent years this work has focussed on application to coastal ocean dynamics. He has been the Shimizu Visting Professor at Stanford University and is a Fellow of Engineers Australia.