What is your current professional role?
I am a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, where I have been since 2008.
What aspects of marine or coastal geoscience do you work on (or have you worked on in the past)?
Over my career I have worked on many related topics including nearshore water waves and currents, storm surge, coastal change analysis using bathymetric lidar, storm effects on natural and man-made features, and a newer topic of coastal boulder deposits as a signature of high energy inundation. Studies have been theoretical/numerical, using laboratory experiments, and with field work, so almost the full range of techniques and tools.
How did you first become interested in science?
I have always been interested in figuring out how things work and how they are put together. Graduate school allowed me to investigate things on my own, and the best thing about a Professorial position is that you can choose your own research topics.
Who have been your greatest mentors?
I have had some great mentors during my career, including John Fenton during my PhD, Tony Dalrymple and Jim Kirby during my postdoc, and Bob Dean and Joannes Westerink as a younger faculty member. Without them, I would probably be out of academia.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in this field?
Spend your best efforts on the things that are important to you in the long term. Keep yourself open to new ideas: many of my best topics have started by accident. And don’t get discouraged. Everyone has setbacks.
Where is your favorite coastal or marine location?
There are too many to choose! Recently, we have been working on Inishmaan, an island off the west coast of Ireland. It has everything from high limestone cliffs to a small beach (with dunes!) at a convergence on the back side of the island. We are investigating coastal boulder transport here by winter storms, and have been instrumenting individual boulders to see the wave and tide conditions causing them to move.
What are some things (not including work) you are passionate about?
As my children have been getting older, I have been making sure to take advantage of the time left before they head off into the wide world. In my spare time, I have been getting to know and collecting old Japanese pattern books, and other woodblocks.
You get a chance to relax with your favorite meal and your favorite music- what are you eating and listening to?
I generally don’t listen to music while eating, but a lot of 90’s tunes have been popping up on my feeds recently. The place that I have been most missing, and have not been back since covid appeared, is Kanoko in Gion, Kyoto, where you can eat sukiyaki (prepared in a way that is not even legal in US restaurants) while sitting on a balcony looking over the river.