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First SAFL (e)Channel
Spring, 2009
Dear (ContactFirst Name),
Welcome to the first e-version of the SAFL Channel. Rest assured, whether in an email or through the post, the SAFL Channel will continue to provide the same feature stories, news, and updates as in the past. We hope that you will join us in our effort to conserve natural resources by subscribing to this new paperless version.
Sincerely,
Fotis Sotiropoulos
Professor and Director
St. Anthony Falls Laboratory |
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Tidal Power for NYC
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 Researchers at SAFL have recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help generate clean energy for New York City. SAFL director, Fotis Sotiropoulos, will lead a team of researchers in developing computational models for optimizing underwater turbines for Verdant Power's Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) project.
Jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the University's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE),
SAFL's powerful
computational fluid dynamics tools will be used to analyze the design and
enhance the environmental compatibility of the turbine rotors,
turbine system, and array levels.
+ Read more |
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Improving Wind Farms
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 Miniature wind turbine models are set up in SAFL's wind tunnel as part of a collaborative research project with WindLogics and Barr Engineering, sponsored by Xcel Energy and the University of Minnesota Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment. A team of SAFL researchers led by project PI Fernando
Porté-Agel and co-PI Fotis Sotiropoulos is currently studying atmospheric boundary layer wind and turbulence, and their interaction with wind turbines. This research can help optimize the configuration of wind farms.
+ Read more |
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Minnesota Lakes Get Salty
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Minnesotans know that road salt keeps our roa ds
safe in winter, but do we know where all that salt goes when
the ice melts? Professor Heinz Stefan researches the effects of road salt on local water quality, and has recently published his findings for the Local Road Research Board.
+ Read More
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Alumni Spotlight
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Nels Nelson, Vice President for Water Resources at Barr Engineering, and SAFL alum, shares his experiences as an engineer at the firm that's like family.
+ Read the full story
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In Memoriam
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SAFL remembers esteemed professor emeritus, Charles Edward Bowers, who passed away this past winter.
+ Read the full story
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SAFL In the News |
>>Underwater Sensors Help Scientists Monitor Water: Professors Miki Hondzo
and Bill Arnold (CE) are leading a project that uses remote sensors to
track pollutant loads in storm water runoff that drains into Minnehaha
Creek. The data is then sent to SAFL for analysis. Coverage in Star Tribune and Kare11 on May 20.
>>Wind Power: Tunnel vision at U: SAFL's latest study on wind turbine arrays, being conducted by associate professor Fernando Porte-Agél and director Fotis Sotiropoulos, makes headlines in the Star Tribune on May 1.
>>SAFL on Flooding: SAFL experts were called on to help explain the reasons behind the Red River Valley flooding. Prof.John Gulliver and associate director of applied research Jeff Marr provided insights to MinnPost, Star Tribune, and others on March 30.
>>Road Salt Hits Headlines: Prof. Heinz Stefan's research on the effects of road salt on local water quality received the following media coverage: Feb. 10: Fox9 News; KARE 11; MSNBC; Star Tribune; UMN News; UMN News video; WCCO Radio; WMNN Radio; Feb. 11: Bloomberg.com-Canada; KAAL-TV; KSTP-TV; MPR; Science Centric-Bulgaria; WCCO TV; Feb. 12: Fort Mill Times; KIMT-TV Iowa; Feb. 13: Christian Science Monitor; Feb. 14: Rochester Post Bulletin; Feb. 15: Duluth News Tribune; Feb. 19: University of Minnesota Moment blog; Feb. 20: Science Daily; March 3: Discovery Channel News, and more.
>>Break It Down: Dam Busters: The NCED/SAFL Marmot Dam model was featured in "Break It Down" on the National Geographic Channel Feb. 5, Feb. 6 and Feb. 12.
>>"The Mississippi"-Old Man River Goes Green: Director Fotis Sotiropoulos was interviewed Nov. 19 by PBS Nightly Report about research on the Mississippi River by both the hydropower industry and the U.S. Department of Energy to improve existing traditional hydro turbine design and make it more fish-friendly.
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Honors & Awards
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The Feb. cover of The Journal of Experimental Biology (212, 4) features images generated by the work of postgraduate researcher Iman Borazjani and SAFL director Fotis Sotiropoulos in simulating aquatic swimming.
Sotiropoulos and Borazjani also recently won an award for a video depicting the same research. The video was selected as a winner of the prestigious Gallery of Fluid Motion competition, presented at the 61st Annual American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 23-25, 2008.
Researchers at SAFL have recently received $400k to help generate clean energy for New York City. SAFL director Fotis Sotiropoulos will lead a team of researchers in developing computational models for optimizing underwater turbines for Verdant Power's Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) project.
Prof. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou was named an IonE Fellow; the invited Borland Lecturer at AGU Hydrology Days; Chair of the Horton Medal Committee, AGU; Member of the Advisory Committee on Helmholtz Research Centers, Germany; and Guest Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface.
Prof. Chris Paola was named IT Distinguished Professor, UMN; and the Leverhulme Visiting Professor (Imperial College, London), Leverhulme Trust.
SAFL alums John Martin (PhD '07) and Ben Sheets (PhD '04), and Prof. Chris Paola, are among the authors of "Sequence stratigraphy of experimental strata under known conditions of differential subsidence and variable base level," the cover article for April's AAPG Bulletin.
Professor Fernando Porté-Agel was awarded funding from Xcel Energy and the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment to study atmospheric boundary layer wind and turbulence and their interaction with wind turbines, as part of a collaborative research project with WindLogics and Barr Engineering.
Graduate students Eric Merten and Andrew Sander, and Profs. Omid Mohseni and Heinz Stefan received the "2009 Outstanding Leadership Award" from the Freshwater Society.
Brian Bell, former advisee of Omid Mohseni, is
part of a team of University students that have won the Acara
Challenge, a contest designed to solicit sustainable business solutions
for global problems. Participation in the challenge was part of the
coursework for "Design for Sustainable Development," a class being
co-taught by Prof. John Gulliver.
Graduate student Leonardo Chamorro was awarded a UMN Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for the 2009/10 academic year.
Filiz Dadaser-Celik (PhD '08) is the first-place recipient of the Universities Council on Water Resources 2009 PhD Dissertation Award in the field of Water Policy and Socioeconomics. Dadaser-Celik's graduate research analyzed the hydrologic, social, and economic aspects and requirements for the restoration of the Sultan Marshes in Anatolia, Turkey, under the guidance of Professors Heinz Stefan and Patrick Brezonik.
The winners of the 2009 Anderson Award are Andy Erickson, research fellow for Prof. John Gulliver, and Arvind Singh, graduate student advised by Prof. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou. Both recipients presented their research at the April 22 award ceremony.
Graduate student Vamsi Ganti is the recipient of the 2009 Edward Silberman Fellowship Award. Ganti, advised by Prof. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, presented a summary of his research at the Feb. 18 award ceremony.
Graduate student Paola Passalacqua
was the recipient of this year's Outstanding Student Paper Award at AGU
for her paper, "River network extraction from LiDAR using
backwards-in-time diffusion?"
The recipient of the 2009 Lorenz G. Straub Award was presented on Jan. 28 to Marco Ghisalberti, postdoctoral fellow at the School of Environmental Systems Engineering, University of Western Australia, for his doctoral thesis, "Momentum and scalar transport in vegetated shear flows."
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