Hydrology & Fluid Dynamics
Duke environmental engineering faculty in the Hydrology and Fluid Dynamics research group pursue some of the most pressing open problems in environmental fluid dynamics, hydrology and water resources. We take a multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach to these complex problems, ranging from advanced theoretical computational analyses to unique laboratory and local and global field experiments.
Research Areas
- Hydrometeorology: Rainfall dynamics, land-atmosphere interaction, remote sensing
- Eco-hydrology: Impact of hydroclimatic variability on ecosystems and feedbacks on the hydrologic cycle and local climate
- Contaminant transport hydrology: Surface-subsurface interactions
- Water cycle dynamics and human health, and stochastic hydrology
Related Study Opportunities
PhD and Master of Science (MS) in Environmental Engineering
- Both PhD and MS programs offer a focused Hydrology and Fluid Dynamics study track
Master of Engineering (MEng) in Environmental Engineering
Duke's MEng in Environmental Engineering offers concentrations in:
- Environmental Engineering and Public Policy
- Environmental Process Engineering
- Ecohydrology and Environmental Fluid Dynamics
Undergraduate Research
Duke BSE degree programs for students interested in studying and conducting research in hydrology include:
- Major in Environmental Engineering
- Major in Civil Engineering in the Environmental Engineering & Water Resources study track
Duke Engineering also offers summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) for students enrolled at other institutions.
Primary Faculty
Ana P. Barros
Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Physics of water cycle processes in mountainous regions with a focus on cloud formation and precipitation; remote sensing of the environment using microwave and infrared sensors; long– range predictability and risk analysis of natural hazards; computational environmental fluid...
Andrew Bragg
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Fundamental and applied problems in fluid dynamics, especially turbulence, and its role in environmental systems.
Nathaniel Chaney
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Hydrology, Earth system science, soil science, ecology, geomorphology, numerical modeling, high performance computing, machine learning, environmental data delivery and data assimilation.
Zbigniew J. Kabala
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Stochastic and deterministic theory of fluid flow and contaminant transport in saturated and unsaturated heterogeneous porous media, theory of related measurements, field and laboratory studies in subsurface hydrogeology, stochastic fields and processes, numerical and analytical...
David E. Schaad
Professor of the Practice of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Sustainable engineering, community development, water and wastewater treatment design, stormwater retention/detention and treatment design, hazardous waste remediation, urban hydrology, constructed wetland and stream restoration design, ecological stabilization, sustainable...
Mark Wiesner
James B. Duke Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Membrane processes, nanostructured materials, transport and fate of nanomaterials in the environment, colloidal and interfacial processes, and environmental systems analysis
Secondary Faculty
Martin Doyle
Professor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Division
Research Interests: River processes (hydraulics, hydrology, sediment transport, ecology) River policy (Clean Water Act, hydropower relicensing, large river management)
James Hench
Associate Professor of Oceanography
Research Interests: Environmental fluid mechanics, shallow-water physical oceanography, physical-biological interactions in marine environments, and marine technology
Marc A. Jeuland
Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Prasad S. Kasibhatla
Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Research Interests: Atmospheric chemistry, Regional and Global Modeling and Atmospheric chemical data analysis
Gabriel G. Katul
Theodore S. Coile Professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorology
Research Interests: Micrometeorology and surface hydrology, Carbon and water cycling, and Environmental fluid dynamics
Mukesh Kumar
Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Wenhong Li
Associate Professor of Climate
Research Interests: Dr. Li's research interests focus primarily on climate dynamics, land-atmosphere interaction, hydroclimatology, and climate modeling. Her current research is to understand how the hydrological cycle changes in the current and future climate and their impacts on the ecosystems,...
Ram Oren
Nicholas Professor of Earth Systems Science
Adjunct Faculty
Massimo Germano
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Turbulence in fluids and its representation. Multiscale decompositions of turbulent flows. The Navier-Stokes, the Large Eddy and the Reynolds equations. Reynolds modeling and subgrid scale modeling for the Large Eddy Simulation of turbulent flows. Hybrid RANS/LES modeling.
Thilo Hofmann
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Hydrogeology, applied geology, colloids, modeling, inorganic and organic pollutants.
Amilcare Porporato
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Near-wall turbulence, nonlinear analysis of hydrologic time series, stochastic soil moisture dynamics and water balance, soil-atmosphere interaction, and ecohydrology, complexity in the environment, sustainable use of soil and water resources.
James R. Rigby
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Peter Thornton
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Emeritus Faculty
Peter K. Haff
Professor Emeritus
Miguel A. Medina
Profesor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Contaminant transport hydrology, specifically modeling flow and mass transport across surface/subsurface interfaces and interactions; and international water issues which include transboundary contaminant transport.