Appendix C
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Richard A. Luettich, Jr., Chair, is the Sewell Family Term Professor of Marine Sciences and Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill. Dr. Luettich also serves as director of the UNC Center for Natural Hazards and Disasters in Chapel Hill and is the lead principal investigator on the Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence in Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management. His research deals with modeling and measurement of circulation and transport in coastal waters. Dr. Luettich’s modeling efforts have emphasized the development and application of unstructured grid solution techniques for geometrically complex systems such as sounds, estuaries, inlets, and inundated regions. He codeveloped the ADCIRC coastal circulation and storm surge model that has been applied extensively for modeling storm surge along the U.S. coast. Dr. Luettich has also participated in the development of components of the national Coastal Ocean Observing System. He served on the National Research Council committees to review the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Program and the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Sc.D. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Gregory B. Baecher, NAE, is the Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the reliability of civil infrastructure and risks posed by natural hazards and the response of infrastructure to those hazards. In recent years, his research has
dealt with dam safety and with the response of levee systems to flooding, including actuarial issues related to flood and other natural hazard insurance. He has also worked on quantitative methods in facilities management, especially federally owned facilities, and on information technology applications to facilities management. Dr. Baecher was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for his work in the development, explication, and implementation of probabilistic- and reliability-based approaches to geotechnical and water resources engineering. He is a recipient of the Commander’s Award for Public Service from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a recipient of the Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award and State-of-the-Art Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is coauthor of Reliability and Statistics in Geotechnical Engineering (2003), Risk and Uncertainty in Dam Safety (2004), and Protection of Civil Infrastructure from Acts of Terrorism (2006). Dr. Baecher received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Susan S. Bell is professor of Marine Ecology in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida (USF). Dr. Bell’s research focuses on topics in marine ecology, especially landscape ecology of marine systems, restoration ecology, and marine conservation. Many of her ongoing studies target questions related to ecosystem response to changing marine habitats. Her work focuses on seagrass habitats (quantifying large-scale distribution and change) but includes investigations in other coastal areas including mangroves, salt marshes, and sandy beaches. In addition, Dr. Bell collaborates with a group of researchers, mainly based at USF, who are working on issues linking urban ecology, watersheds, and human dimensions. Dr. Bell received a Ph.D. in 1979 from University of South Carolina.
Phillip R. Berke is professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, and director of the Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities, Texas A&M University at College Station. He is also a collaborative research scholar of the International Global Change Institute in New Zealand, and a faculty affiliate with the Plan Evaluation Lab of the University of British Columbia. Dr. Berke’s research interests include land-use and environmental planning, state and local development management, sustainable development, and natural hazard mitigation in developed and developing communities. His research seeks to explore the causes of land use decisions and the consequences to the environmental, social, and economic systems of human settlements. He was a member of the Science and Engineering Board for the 2012 Update of Louisiana’s Master Plan for Coastal Protection and Restoration and a member of the NRC’s Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences: Future
Challenges and Opportunities. Dr. Berke received his B.A. in economics and environmental science from Empire State College, M.S. in natural resources planning from the University of Vermont, and Ph.D. in urban and regional science from Texas A&M University.
Ross B. Corotis, NAE, is the Denver Business Challenge Professor of Engineering at the University of Colorado (UC), Boulder. His research interests are in the application of probabilistic concepts and decision perceptions for civil engineering problems, with particular focus on societal tradeoffs for hazards in the built infrastructure. His current research emphasizes the coordinated roles of engineering and social science with respect to framing and communicating societal investments for long-term risks and resiliency. He previously served on the faculty at Northwestern University, established the Department of Civil Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University—where he was also associate dean of engineering—and was dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at UC Boulder. He has numerous research, teaching, and service awards, was editor of the International Journal Structural Safety and the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, and chaired the Executive Committee of the International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability. He is a member of the National Academies Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment and previously served on the Disasters Roundtable Steering Committee and the Committee on Integrating Dam and Levee Safety and Community Resilience. Dr. Corotis was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. He received his S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Daniel T. Cox is professor in the Coastal and Ocean Engineering Program and adjunct faculty of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Before coming to OSU in 2002, he was associate professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on coastal processes, particularly nearshore hydrodynamics, sediment transport, surf-zone turbulence, and boundary-layer processes. He also has an interest in the design and performance of coastal structures. Dr. Cox is an associate editor for the Coastal Engineering Journal and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Subcommittee to Develop Standards for Tsunami Engineering Design. He received his Ph.D., M.S, and B.S. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Delaware.
Robert A. Dalrymple, NAE, is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. His major research interests are in the areas of coastal engineering, wave mechanics, fluid mechanics, littoral processes, and tidal inlets. His research
currently explores water wave modeling, tsunamis and their impacts on shorelines, and the interaction of water waves with the seabed, specifically mud bottoms. Dr. Dalrymple was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. He chaired the NRC Committee on the Review of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Program and the NRC Committee on Sea Level Rise in California, Oregon, and Washington. Dr. Dalrymple received his A.B. degree in engineering sciences from Dartmouth University, his M.S. degree in ocean engineering from the University of Hawaii, and his Ph.D. degree in civil and coastal engineering from the University of Florida.
Tony MacDonald is currently the director of the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey. Mr. MacDonald was previously the executive director of the Coastal States Organization from 1998 to 2005. Prior to joining the Coastal States Organization, he was the special counsel and director of environmental affairs at the American Association of Port Authorities, where he represented the International Association of Ports and Harbors at the International Maritime Organization on negotiations on the London Convention. He has also practiced law with a private firm in Washington, D.C., working on environmental and legislative issues, and served as the Washington, D.C. environmental legislative representative of the Mayor of the City of New York. He specializes in environment, coastal, marine, and natural resources law and policy and federal, state, and local government affairs. He earned a B.A. from Middlebury College and a J.D. from Fordham University.
Karl F. Nordstrom is a professor in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. His research is focused on the dynamic processes affecting the size, shape, and location of beaches and dunes in ocean and estuarine environments. His research also includes analysis of natural hazards, land use, and restoration of naturally functioning environments in developed municipalities. He has worked in the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, and Germany, and has published numerous books, including Beaches and Dunes of Developed Coasts and Estuarine Shores: Evolution, Environments, and Human Alterations. He received Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards in 1999 and 2006, and the Grove Karl Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Coastal Research and is a member of several professional associations on coastal environments and beach preservation. Dr. Nordstrom received his M.S. and Ph.D. in geography from Rutgers University.
Stephen Polasky, NAS, is the Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological/ Environmental Economics at the University of Minnesota. He previously
held faculty positions at Oregon State University and Boston College. Dr. Polasky was also the senior staff economist for environment and resources for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1998 to 1999. His research interests include ecosystem services, natural capital, biodiversity conservation, endangered species policy, integrating ecological and economic analysis, renewable energy, environmental regulation, and common property resources. He has served as coeditor and associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, as associate editor for the International Journal of Business and Economics, and is currently serving as an associate editor for Conservation Letters, Ecology and Society, and Ecology Letters. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received his Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Michigan.
Sean P. Powers is professor and chair of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, and senior marine scientist, Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Dr. Powers’ research focuses on the ecology of coastal and estuarine fishes and benthic invertebrates, particularly those that support commercial and recreational fisheries. His current research includes efforts to quantify the linkages between habitats (natural, restored, and constructed) and demersal fishes and invertebrates, conservation and restoration of marine biogenic habitats, and development of ecosystem-based management approaches. Much of Dr. Powers’ research is focused on the interface of social, economic, and ecological sciences and how this interaction influences sustainable management of natural resources. Dr. Powers received his B.S. in biology and chemistry from Loyola University, an M.S. in biological sciences from the University of New Orleans, and a Ph.D. in biology, with areas of specialization in ecology and evolution, zoology, and biostatistics, from Texas A&M. He currently serves as a committee member for the Science and Statistical Committee for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and as a scientific advisor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Don Resio is professor of ocean engineering and director of the Taylor Engineering Research Institute at the University of North Florida, where he is building a new advanced degree program and developing a new curriculum in Coastal and Estuarine Engineering. He is a recognized leader in meteorology, hydrodynamics, and probabilistic analysis of environmental hazards in coastal, estuarine, and riverine areas. Dr. Resio’s research interests include the development of innovative marine and coastal structures, environmental statistics (with a focus on weather extremes), surface gravity waves in
deep and shallow water, improved wave measurement systems, and coastal processes. Dr. Resio previously served as the senior technologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Coastal and Hydraulics Lab from 1994 to 2011. He served as a coleader of the post-Katrina interagency forensics analysis of wave and storm surge effects on levees and subsequently became the leader of the risk analysis team for the South Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project, including consideration of the effects of climatic variability on hurricane characteristics in the Gulf of Mexico. This team developed a new technical approach for hurricane risk assessment now being used along all U.S. coastlines, which is also being extended by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for new licensing guidelines at coastal sites. Dr. Resio currently serves as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations’ Joint World Meteorological Organization’s Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) in the area of climate effects in the ocean and is the cochair of the UN Coastal Inundation and Flooding Demonstration Project. Dr. Resio earned his Ph.D at the University of Virginia in environmental sciences.
Ap Van Dongeren is a senior researcher at Deltares in the Netherlands. His research interests include wave generation, nearshore circulation, and nearshore morphology and dune erosion. Dr. Van Dongeren has been project leader on a number of national and international projects, including development and application of the Delft3D model for the Office of Naval Research. He has also led the Deltares effort to develop the open-source dune erosion model XBeach. He has led a project team to improve the performance of SWAN (a wave model) in order to derive more reliable wave boundary conditions for flood risk assessments. He is the research program leader on event-driven hydro- and morphodynamics, and is the coordinator of a European Union project on Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts. Dr. Van Dongeren received his M.Sc. from Delft University of Technology and his Ph.D. in coastal engineering from the University of Delaware.
