College of Engineering @ University of South Florida

Dr. Andrés Tejada-Martínez, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, received a $480,000 National Science Foundation award for his proposal titled CAREER: Parameterizations of Langmuir Turbulence in Shallow Water.

This multidisciplinary grant is being co-funded by the Engineering, Geosciences and Cyber Infrastructure Directorates.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.

“I am honored and excited to have received an NSF CAREER Award to advance my work in numerical simulations of oceanic turbulence and its impact on physical, chemical, and biological processes in coastal regions,” said Dr. Tejada-Martinez. Better understanding of these processes will eventually lead to improved regional and global climate prediction models.”

Tejada-Martínez’s integrated research and educational program will promote environmental fluid mechanics and computational science. A citizen science network will be established to record surface characteristics of foam and flotsam patterns associated with wave-, wind- and tidal-driven turbulent flows throughout Tampa Bay. This network will increase public awareness of turbulent mixing and its influence on processes such as gas transfer across the air-water interface, mixing of pollutants and harmful algal blooms (red tides).