Ph.D. Students

Roozbeh Ehsani  
Stochastic modeling of wall turbulence                                                                                                                                                                      Sponsored by NSF CBET Fluid dynamics 

Co-advised PhD student(s)

Michael Chiappone  (Main advisor prof.  Peter Makovicky)
mobility and transport of hadrosauroid dinosaur  bones in rivers 

MS Student(s)

Ryan Lin  
Distribution of uniform momentum zones in rough wall turbulence

Graduated Students

Jiaqi LI PhD 2024          (main Advisor J. Hong ME)                                                                                                                                                          Experimental Investigation of snow settling in turbulence
Sponsored by NSF physical and Dynamic Meteorology and NASA

Amy Tinklenberg  PhD 2024   (main Advisor F. Coletti AEM) 
Experimental Investigation of Disks Settling in Quiescent and Turbulent Air
Sponsored by NSF physical and Dynamic Meteorology and NASA

Jiyong Lee PhD 2022
Bedform migration and fluvial bathymetry control
Sponsored by NSF Career grant, DOE modular Hydropower grant

Michael Heisel, PhD 2020
Self organization of turbulence structures in high Reynolds number, rough wall boundary layers and impact on renewable energy

Binzheng Dou PhD  (visiting Scholar from Tsinghua University, China)
Studying how wind turbine operating conditions control turbulence characteristics in the wake: exploring the effects of tip speed ratio, pitch and yaw variation
Main advisors: Liping Lei and Pan Zeng (Tsinghua)

Hadis Matinpour PhD (visiting Scholar from University of Buffalo, now UCSB) Studying two way coupling effects in particle laden turbulent flows
Main advisors: Joseph Atkinson and Sean Bennet (University of Buffalo)

Giulia Ravanelli MS  (visiting Scholar from University of Trento, IT)
Studying the effect of yawing MHK turbines as a form of derating and control of sediment deposition
Main advisor: Walter Bertoldi (University of Trento)

Mirko Musa PhD 2019
Local and Non-local Geomorphic Effects of Hydrokinetic Turbines: Bridging Renewable Energy and RiverMorphodynamics

Anne Ahlvers Wilkinson PhD 2018
Microcystis and cyanobacteria in stably stratified turbulent flows: predicting harmful algal blooms in Minnesota Lakes

in collaboration with prof. Miki Hondzo
Sponsored by NSF fellowship and Minnesota state funding from LCCMR

Craig Hill PhD 2015
Two-way interaction between instream Marine Hydrokinetic (MHK) devices and erodible bathymetries, in simple and complex environments

in collaboration with prof. Fotis Sotiropoulos

Kevin B. Howard PhD 2014
Wind turbine performance and wake development for various atmospheric, operational and siting conditions, 

in collaboration with prof. Leonardo P. Chamorro

Chris Feist MS 2015
Offshore wind power plants: coupled experiments in the wind tunnel and wave basin

in collaboration with prof. Fotis Sotiropoulos, and Kelly Ruehl SANDIA Nat Lab. Sponsored by DOE

Stephen J. Hu MS 2013 (Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics)
High speed PIV on turbulence structures impacting the turbine rotor in collaboration with prof. Jian Sheng and Dr. Leonardo P. Chamorro

Chao Sun MS 2013 (Civil Engineering)
Turbulent front propagation velocity in stably stratified fluids in collaboration with prof. Miki Hondzo

Nicholas Bad Heart Bull MS 2013 (Civil Engineering, NCED)
Convection velocities of sediment bedforms: a spectral approach

in collaboration with Dr Arvind Singh

Former students & collaborators now faculty member(s)

Dr. Mirko Musa

Assistant professor in the Institute of Civil Engineering, Ecole Polytechnic Lausanne, EPFL (CH)

Dr. Michael Heisel

Assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Sydney (AUS).

Dr. Craig Hill

Assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD).

Dr. Kevin Howard

Assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Michigan Tech

Dr. Arvind Singh

Associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Central Florida.

2012-2014 postoctoral fellow (in collaboration with prof. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou)  at Civil Engineering, UMN. We worked on spatio temporal evolution of bed topography

Dr. Mingxiao Liu

Assistant Professor, School of Water Conservancy North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou.

2016-2018 visiting scholar  at SAFL , UMN. We have been working on bedload transport at the grain scale and on stochastic modeling of the particle waiting time.

Dr. Biao Li

Assistant Professor, School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, HIT

2015-2016 visiting scholar  at SAFL , UMN. 

Masters Students