The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) congratulates Dr. Joseph Katz on his election to the National Academy of Engineering 2019 class, one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. A formal induction ceremony for the new class will be held during the academy’s annual meeting in October in Washington, D.C.
This award honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, education, and engineering literature and who have pioneered new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education. The academy noted Dr. Katz’ development of optical methods in experimental fluid mechanics for turbomachinery, cavitation, turbulence, and environmental flows.
Dr. Katz is a William F. Ward Sr. Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Director of the University’s Center for Environmental and Applied Fluid Mechanics. The Center’s research focuses on wide range of spatial and temporal scales of fluid flows, including applications in industry, transportation, and manufacturing and in ocean and coastal engineering.
Dr. Katz is also a Co-Principal Investigator for the GoMRI-funded research consortium Dispersion Research on Oil: Physics and Plankton Studies (DROPPS), which is investigating the interactions between oil and marine organisms, developing modeling tools, and characterizing the phases where fluids and solids intersect. Dr. Katz leads studies investigating processes involved with the dispersion of oil spills and interactions of oil with marine organisms. He was instrumental in establishing a new 1,100 sq. ft. state-of-the-art oil spill research laboratory, leveraging University funds and the GoMRI award.
Dr. Katz’ research focuses on experimental fluid mechanics and development of advanced diagnostics techniques for laboratory and field applications. His research groups have studied laboratory and oceanic turbulent boundary layers, flows and instabilities in turbomachines, flow-structure interactions, swimming behavior of marine plankton in the laboratory and in the ocean, as well as cavitation, bubble, and droplet dynamics in different systems. He has co-authored more than 280 Journal and conference papers, several book chapters, and seven patents. In addition to GoMRI, Dr. Katz’ research has been funded by the Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, NASA, Airforce Office of Scientific Research, Department of Energy, The Coastal Response Research Center (NOAA and University of New Hampshire partnership), and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The scientific community has recognized Dr. Katz with numerous honors, including the Johns Hopkins University Gilman Scholar; Fellowship in the American Physical Society and the American society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), as well as the ASME Fluids Engineering, Knapp, and Moody Awards.
By Nilde Maggie Dannreuther. Contact maggied@ngi.msstate.edu with questions or comments.
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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.
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