Coastal Ecosystem Dynamics » Civil & Coastal Engineering Faculty & Staff

Photo of Andrew Altieri Andrew Altieri Associate Professor and Interim Director, Center for Coastal Solutions
352-294-7748

Andrew Altieri earned his BA at UC Santa Cruz and PhD at Brown University followed by postdocs at Northeastern University and Brown University. Andrew was a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama before joining the faculty at UF. He is an Associate Director in UF’s Center for Coastal Solutions. He is generally interested in human impacts on coastal ecosystems, particularly the ecological interactions that underlie the response of biogenic habitats and their associated communities to those impacts.…

Photo of Christine Angelini Christine Angelini Professor Emeritus
352-294-7815

Christine Angelini is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS). Founded in 2020, CCS works across disciplines–ecology, engineering, health, computer sciences, policy and communications–to develop and deliver research and technology solutions that support coastal communities in addressing hazards and environmental degradation. A hallmark of the center’s innovation is the integration of large data sets, artificial intelligence and supercomputing to rapidly simulate coastal environmental scenarios and produce data driven solutions.…

Photo of Michael Annable Michael Annable Professor
352-392-3294

Dr. Annable has been a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida since 1992. His research interests are in physical-chemical processes related to field scale application of innovative technologies for subsurface remediation. His research also focuses on innovative methods for measuring contaminant and water flux in hydrologic systems. Dr.…

Photo of James Cahill James Cahill Lecturer
352 294-9047

James Cahill is a lecturer and independent PI in Environmental Engineering Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2016. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Rockefeller University from 2017-2020. He has expertise in Population Genomics, Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics. His research focuses on applying genomic techniques to immediate challenges in species conservation, environmental monitoring and human health.…

Photo of Alberto Canestrelli Alberto Canestrelli Associate Professor
352-294-7583

I joined UF in December 2017 after receiving my Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, and after two post-docs, at Boston University and Penn State University. My primary research focus is on the numerical modeling of coastal and estuarine hydrodynamics and morphodynamics. My ultimate goal is to understand the mechanisms governing the evolution of natural and man-influenced environments.…

Photo of David Kaplan David Kaplan Associate Professor
352-392-8439

David Kaplan is an Associate Professor and Director of the H.T. Odum Center for Wetlands. Research in Dr. Kaplan’s Watershed Ecology Lab focuses on linkages among the hydrological cycle, ecosystem processes, and human activities, with the goal of advancing natural resources conservation and management. He has worked extensively with water and environmental management agencies to tie hydrological modeling to ecological outcomes, predict restoration effects, and guide water management.…

Photo of Michael McVay Michael McVay Professor Emeritus
352-273-1835

Primary Research Area
Geosystems Engineering
Other Research Area
Coastal Ecosystem Dynamics

Photo of Elise Morrison Elise Morrison Assistant Professor
(352) 294-9057

Primary Research Area
Coastal Ecosystem Dynamics (CESD)
Other Research Area
Systems Ecology & Ecological Engineering
Research Interests
Environmental Microbiology, Biogeochemistry, Water Quality, Chemical Biomarkers
Education
B.S., Environmental Biology and Management, University of California, Davis
Ph.D., Soil and Water Sciences, University of Florida

Photo of Maitane Olabarrieta Maitane Olabarrieta Associate Professor
(352) 294-7812

Maitane Olabarrieta received her doctorate in marine science and technology from the University of Cantabria in Spain in 2006. Her research interests cover diverse oceanographic and long-term morphodynamic evolution problems that affect our coasts. She studies processes such as atmosphere and ocean momentum exchange processes during hurricanes and extreme storms, the generation mechanisms of meteotsunamis, storm impacts and longer-term evolution of estuaries and coastal areas.…

Photo of Alex Sheremet Alex Sheremet University Term Professor
(352) 294-7811

Primary Research Area
Coastal & Oceanographic Engineering
Other Research Area
Coastal Ecosystem Dynamics

Photo of Nina Stark Nina Stark Associate Professor

Nina Stark is the faculty lead of the coastal & marine geotechnics research group. Nina has received her MS (Diploma) in Geophysics in 2007 from the Westphalian Wilhelms University Muenster, Germany, and her PhD in Marine Geotechnics in 2011 from the University of Bremen, Germany. She worked as a postdoc at the University of Bremen (2011-2012) and at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada (2012-2013).…

Photo of Kathe Todd-Brown Kathe Todd-Brown Assistant Professor
352-294-6604

I am a computational biogeochemist who uses mathematics and computers to understand how soil breathes. Soils are a major source of natural carbon dioxide (the greenhouse gas driving current climate change); soils are expected to emit more carbon dioxide as climate gets warmer, potentially creating a vicious feedback cycle. I use models combined with data from worldwide studies to improve our predictive understanding of soil-driven carbon dioxide fluxes.…

Photo of Khiem Tran Khiem Tran Professor
352-294-3369

Dr. Khiem Tran is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. His primary areas of research are geophysical and nondestructive testing, and foundation design and capacity assessment. He mostly focuses on seismic and ultrasonic techniques for nondestructive evaluation of transportation and civil infrastructure, as well as foundation dynamics and monitoring for integrity and capacity assessment.…

Photo of Xiao Yu Xiao Yu Associate Professor
352-294-7754

Dr. Xiao Yu is assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He joined UF in 2017 after receiving his Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering from the University of Delaware. His primary areas of research are turbulent mixing and transport in estuaries and coastal ocean, sediment transport, and physical-biological coupling in ecosystems.…