FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science Oil Spill Experts
With the latest news on the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida Atlantic University faculty members are available to discuss the state of the Gulf and the effects of the oil spill in regards to biology, ecology, its marine organisms, as well as in the areas of the geosciences, and civil, environmental and geomatics engineering:
- Fred Bloetscher, PhD is an assistant professor in FAU’s department of civil, environmental, and geomatics engineering. His research areas include water quality changes in coastal marine waters, groundwater injection programs and occurrence and treatment of pharmaceutically active chemicals in water. Bloetscher can be reached at 561.297.0744 (office) or fbloetsc@fau.edu.
- Daniel Meeroff, PhD is an assistant professor in FAU’s department of civil, environmental, and geomatics engineering. His research areas include water/waste-water treatment processes, water chemistry, environmental microbiology, natural detoxification mechanisms and hazardous waste treatment. Meeroff can be reached at 561.297.3099 (office) or dmeeroff@fau.edu.
- Panagiotis (Pete) D. Scarlatos, PhD is a professor and chair of the department of civil, environmental and geomatics engineering. His expertise includes ocean waves and currents, coastal processes, sediment transport, density currents, sediment quality and contamination, pollutant dispersion and diffusion, simulation and modeling. He can be reached at 561.297.0466 (office) or pscarlat@fau.edu.
- Manhar Dhanak, PhD is a professor and director of the Institute for Ocean and Systems Engineering at FAU’s SeaTech campus, having served as the chair of the department of ocean engineering for the past six years. He has research interests in hydrodynamics and physical oceanography and has been involved in field experiments using autonomous underwater vehicles. He also has consulted on development of several outfalls off the U.S. east coast and water intake systems for power plants in Mexico and the Philippines. Dhanak serves on the board of the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) and is the chair of the Florida COOS Consortium. He can be reached at 954.924.7242 or dhanak@fau.edu.
- Chaouki Ghenai, PhD is an assistant professor in FAU’s department of ocean and mechanical engineering. His expertise includes simulation and modeling of oil spill fate and transport (advection, turbulent diffusion, surface spreading, evaporation, emulsification and dissolution); combustion of oil spills (effects of ocean waves and wind on the burning behavior of oil spills - flame structure, burning rate, amount of oil converted to smoke); and environmental effects from combustion of oil spills (source emissions characterization ’ carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter and air pollution dispersion modeling, or dispersion of particulate matter from the combustion of oil spills in ambient atmosphere). He can be reached at 561.297.3943 (office) or cghenai@fau.edu.
- Stewart Glegg, PhD is a professor in FAU’s department of ocean and mechanical engineering. He is an expert on fluid structure interactions and ocean engineering. Glegg has been a member of the board of directors of the South Florida Ocean Measurement Center and the board of governors of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education based in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at 561.297.2633 (office) or sglegg@fau.edu.
- Tsung-chow Su, PhD is a professor in FAU’s department of ocean and mechanical engineering, and specializes in fluid mechanics and fluid-structure interactions. He has published papers related to transient loads on offshore platforms during a subsea well blowout, prediction of boat drift for search and rescue, improved marine outfall design, and dynamics of a jet-sink system to direct a jet to a sink. Su also has experience in analytical, experimental and field research, and has interest in the recovery of oil at the plume near its source subsea by a jet-sink system, separation of oil and sea water by vortex based method, and applying nano- and micro-scale technology to oxidize the crude oil to minimize contamination. Su can be reached at 561.297.3896 (office) or su@fau.edu.
August 19, 2010