Two new researchers join NCED

NCED welcomes two new researchers this fall.

Nathana�l Geleynse comes to NCED from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. He is an NCED Synthesis Post-Doc hired under the NCED-Deltares Collaborative Agreement. His work focuses on the controls and morphodynamics and stratigraphy of river deltas and is in collaboration with Chris Paola, Vaughan Voller and David Mohrig. He likes both holistic and reductionistic approaches regarding many of earth's surface processes within the triad of field, laboratory and computational models. 
 

Federico Falcini received his PhD in Earth Sciences from La Sapienza University of Rome and has most recently worked as a postdoc with Douglas Jerolmack at the University of Pennsylvania on Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Sediment Transport Dynamics, and Geomorphology. He is currently coordinating a multidisciplinary team composed of oceanographers, sedimentologists, and geomorphologists to determine the impact of a geologically significant flood event, such as the 2011 Mississippi River flood, on coastal sedimentation patterns and rates. Advised by Chris Paola, Vaughan Voller, and Fotis Sotiropoulos at NCED, Federico will work as a Postdoc on both theoretical and experimental approaches to relate the internal fluid flow properties with river mouth sedimentation pattern. He will theoretically investigate the role of non-locality versus non-linearity in the sediment mass conservation equation.

We welcome Nathana�l Geleynse and Federico Falcini to NCED!

NCED had a strong presence at the annual Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting that was held in Minneapolis on October 9-12, 2011. NCED researchers presented over 30 oral presentations and 20 poster presentations to GSA members, including organizing 4 sessions and hosting 5 field trips. NCED also helped sponsor a screening of "Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story."

GSA tour of SAFL

One of the field trips featured the NCED headquarters - St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. Chris Paola led approximately 30 GSA participants on a three hour tour of the lab, which included information on the historic significance of the facility and visiting ongoing experiments such as the Outdoor Stream Lab and delta basins.

Read about NCED at GSA events here. 

NCED Principal Investigator Robert Twilley is currently the Vice President of Research at the University of Louisiana Lafayette as well as Professor and lab supervisor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University. His research has focused on systems ecology and biogeochemistry of coastal wetlands both in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout Latin America. Through this research Professor Twilley has tried to develop fundamentals of ecosystem science by describing biogeochemical processes (denitrification, nutrient burial, benthic nutrient fluxes) that determine the function of coastal ecosystems as either a source or sink of primary nutrients to near shore environments. Twilley has received grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Lousiana Department of Natural Resources, South Florida Water Management District, National Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Florida International University, in addition to NCED.

Most recently, Professor Twilley presented his research at the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition on October 25th, 2011 in a technical presentation entitled "Water and Oil Should Mix: An Alliance in Energy and Environmental Policies to Reduce Risk to Oil and Gas Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico." Twilley and NCED Research Associate Azure Bevington presented at the 21st Biennial Conference of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation that took place from November 6-10, 2011 at Daytona Beach, Florida. Bevington presented on "Vegetation community structure in relation to elevation and sediment characteristics in the prograding Wax Lake sub-delta" and Twilley's presentation covered "Sediment and Nutrient Tradeoffs in Restoring the Mississippi River Delta. Professor Twilley has been involved in meetings such as the Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities initiative that seeks to assess vulnerabilities along the Gulf Coast as a result of coastal land loss and empower the region to envision and plan to "ensure resiliency and sustain cultural, economic and ecological values in the face of growing coastal degradation." He presented his findings on the connections between energy and the environment in protecting and restoring coastal Louisiana at the Blue Ribbon Resilient Community Forum in Galveston, Texas, November 16-17, 2011.

NCED is sponsoring a booth in the AGU Exhibit Hall for the duration of the AGU Fall Meeting, which will take place December 5-9 in San Francisco. Read the entire NCED at AGU document here. 

NCED Principal Investigator Mary Power has been appointed Honorary Doctor by the Faculty of Science and Technology at Umea University in Sweden.  

PI Fotis Sotiropoulos and Eolos Wind Energy Research Consortium at the University of Minnesota celebrate the commissioning of a Wind Research Field Station in Rosemount, MN.

NCED participated in two NSF-sponsored workshops on Research at the Intersection of Marine/Hydrokinetic Energy and the Environment and on Research in Landscape Sustainability: Earth-surface processes in the context of SEES (Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability) in Minneapolis, MN, October 5-7, 2011.  

International Year of Deltas was featured in Eos, October 2011. 

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