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Coastal Hydrodynamics and Hazards - James M. Kaihatu

Texas A&M University College of Engineering

People

Faculty

James M. Kaihatu

Professor, Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

jkaihatu@tamu.edu

979-862-3511

Student

Samira Ardani

BS in Civil Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran; MS in Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran. Ph.D. dissertation: A model for transformation of fully dispersive nonlinear waves. Graduated August 2016. Status: Physical Scientist III, Lynker / Environmental Modeling Center (NOAA), College Park, MD.

Gregery Balsmeier

BS in Civil Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. Master of Engineering research report: Physical model of wave damping by emergent vegetation following wave breaking. Graduated December 2007. Status: Returned to duty with U.S. Navy.

Morgan Calvey

B.S. in Civil Engineering, Arizona State University. Master of Engineering project: Testing and implementation of synthetic ensemble storm winds in a hydrodynamic model for hurricane surge. Status: Engineer with KS Associates, Elyria, OH.

Mindo Choi

BS, ME in Civil Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Project: Characteristics and modeling of the infragravity wave environment along the Alaska coast. Status: Physical Scientist, SAIC / Environmental Modeling Center (NOAA), College Park, MD.

Deirdre Devery

BS in Civil Engineering, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. Master of Engineering research report: Wavelet analysis of tsunami-swell interaction experimental data. Graduated August 2012. Status: Engineer with Chevron, Houston, TX.

Hoda El-Safty

BS, MS, Department of Civil Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Master of Engineering project: Propagation and dissipation of nonlinear waves over steep slopes. Graduated December 2011. Status: Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.

John Goertz

BS, MS in Ocean Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Ph.D. dissertation: Nearshore interactions of tsunamis with local systems. Status: Engineer, Coastal Processes Branch, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS (stationed at South Pacific Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles, CA.)

Shiqi Guo

BS in Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Master of Engineering research report: Dissipation physics sensitivity analyses of a phase-averaged wave model. Graduated August 2018. Status: Engineer, AECOM, Charleston, SC.

Ruiqi Guo

BE in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Master of Engineering report: Predictions of nearshore wave energy using a spectral wave model. Graduated August 2015. Status: Doctoral student at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

Sunghoon Han

BS, MS in Naval Architecture and Ocean Systems Engineering, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan, Republic of Korea. Ph.D. dissertation: Hydrodynamic characteristics present in nonlinear long wave amplification in the shadow zone of offshore islands. Graduated December 2022. Status: Research Associate, School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

Nathaniel Herron

BS in Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. Master of Engineering research report: Estimating ship approach velocity with Delft3D. Graduated December 2010. Status: Returned to duty with U.S. Navy.

Michael Jarosz

BS in Mechanical Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Masters of Engineering research report: Development of Delft-3D as a relocateable nearshore modeling system for naval applications. Graduated December 2008. Status: Returned to duty with U.S. Navy.

Boyang Jiang

BS in Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China. MS thesis: Multi-dimensional error analysis of nearshore wave modeling tools, with application toward data-driven boundary correction. Graduated December 2010. Status: Engineer with Det Norske Veritas USA, Houston, TX.

Yu Jiang

BS in Harbor, Water Channels and Coastal Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Heilongjiang, People’s Republic of China. Master of Engineering project: Modeling of erosional hotspots. Graduated December 2018. Status: Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences, Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, College of Business, California State University, Sacramento, CA. Web site.

In-Chul Kim

BS, MS in Civil Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Ph.D. project: Development and implementation of a consistently-scaled, nonlinear frequency domain ocean wave model. Ph.D. dissertation: A consistent nonlinear frequency domain model for finite depth ocean wave propagation. Graduated May 2022. Status: Assistant Professor, Department of Ocean Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan, Republic of Korea (starting March 2025). Research web page.

Jin-Young Kim

BS in Environmental and Civil Engineering, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan; MS in Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Ph.D. dissertation: Erosion of wetlands in Galveston Bay by ocean waves. Graduated May 2021. Status: Research Professor, School of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (starting November 2024). Co-chair with Kuang-An Chang, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Research web page.

Szu-Ting Lee

BS in Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Master of Engineering research report: Storm surge modeling during Hurricane Ike with Delft3D – Manning coefficient sensitivity analysis. Graduated August 2018. Status: Water Resources Engineer, Dynamic Solutions International, LLC, Edmonds, WA.

Wonhyun Lee

BS, ME in Civil Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Ph.D. dissertation: Modeling of three-dimensional wind-driven hydrodynamic and environmental processes in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. Graduated August 2018. Status: Research Associate, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

Ying-Po Liao

BS in Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan; MS in Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Ph.D. dissertation: Interaction of a turbulent wind with ocean surface waves – numerical modeling. Graduated December 2016. Status: Software Engineer, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA. Co-chair with Reza Sadr, Texas A&M University Qatar.

Chi Lu

BS in Oceanography, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; MS in Oceanography, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. MS thesis: Riverine and sediment processes in the Yangtze River estuary – modeling and validation. Graduated December 2016. Status: Engineer with Moffatt and Nichol Engineers, Raleigh, NC.

Xuan Ma

BS and MS in Hydraulic Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China. Ph.D. Project: Prediction of coastal hydrodynamic forces on structures and coastal infrastructure.

William Mack

BS in Civil Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. Master of Engineering research report: Delft-3D model of San Luis Pass, TX. Graduated May 2008. Status: Engineer with BHP Billiton, Houston, TX.

Dinesh Manian

BTech in Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. MS thesis: Using genetic algorithms to optimize bathymetric surveys for hydrodynamic model input. Graduated December 2009. Status: Engineer with Moffatt and Nichol Engineers, New York, NY.

Patrick McLaughlin

BS in Civil Engineering, Villanova University, Villanova, PA. MS thesis: Parameterization and statistical analysis of hurricane waves. Graduated May 2014. Status: Engineer with Mott MacDonald Engineering, Salt Lake City, UT.

Aaron Murai

BS in Civil Engineering, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii. MS Project: Prediction of hurricane surge and flooding at three locations along the Texas coast.

Woongsuk Pae

BE in Civil Engineering, Chung-An University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. MS thesis: Erosion countermeasures for eastern coastline of Korea. Graduated August 2016. Status: Engineer with Korea Gas Corporation, Daegu, Republic of Korea.

David Pauling

BS in Offshore and Coastal Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, Galveston, TX. MS thesis: Dissipation of group waves in shallow water for wave model input. Graduated August 2018. Status: Engineer with KS Associates, Elyria, OH.

Ross Penrod

BS in Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. Master of Engineering research report: Numerical modeling of processes on the Atchafalaya Shelf, Louisiana. Graduated December 2012. Status: Returned to duty with U.S. Navy.

Mourya Penugonda

BTech in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. MS thesis: Nonlinear wave transformation using modified dispersive shoaling models. Graduated August 2018. Status: Engineer with National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Navid Tahvildari

BS in Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University, Tehran, Iran; MS in Civil Engineering, Sharif University, Tehran, Iran. Ph.D. dissertation: Nonlinear interactions between long waves in a two-layer fluid. Graduated December 2011. Status: Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL (starting Spring 2025). Research web site at Old Dominion University.

Antonne Taylor

BS in Civil Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. MS thesis: Parameterization of maximum waveheights forced by hurricanes: Application to Corpus Christi, Texas. Graduated December 2012. Status: Coastal and Structural Engineer, Ministry of Works and Urban Development, Nassau, Bahamas.

Aravinda Venkattaramanan

BTech in Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. MS thesis: Nonlinear characteristics of wave propagation over vegetation. Graduated May 2014. Status: Engineer with COWI, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Xin Yang

BS in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, People’s Republic of China. MS thesis: Effects of transient long waves on nonlinear processes in random waves. Graduated August 2019. Status: Senior Research Associate, NOAA/AOML/Hurricane Research Division and University of Miami/CIMAS, Miami, FL.

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