The Team

Muriel Brückner, PhD, Assistant Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Biophysical feedbacks, eco-morphodynamic modeling, fluvial and coastal geomorphology and ecology, remote sensing

• PhD (2021) Physical Geography, Utrecht University - The Netherlands.
• MS (2016) Civil & Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig - Germany.
• BS (2013) Civil & Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig - Germany.

Zhenwei (Vic) Wu, PhD Student in Civil Engineering (Fall 2024 – Expected 2028)

Dissertation Topic: The impact of varying flooding periods on sediment transport and delta morphology
• MS (2024) in Watershed Hydrology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA - USA.
• BS (2020) in Marine Science, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan - China.

Anderson Amaya-Saldarriaga, MS Student in Coastal & Ecological Engineering (Fall 2024 – Expected 2026)
Thesis Topic:  Influence of Vegetation-Induced Roughness on Morphodynamics in River-Dominated Deltas

• BS (2021) Civil Engineering focused on Computational Mechanics, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín – Colombia.

Wade Stinson-Ebert, Visiting MS Student
Thesis Topic:  Effect of Vegetation Roughness on Salt Marsh Inundation and Accretion

• MS Student - University of Akureyri School of Natural Resource Sciences & Management,  
Akureyri - Iceland (Expected 2025)
• BA (2020) Environmental Studies & Management, St. Olaf College, Northfield MN - USA.

Ethan Nguyen, BS Student Civil Engineering (Expected Graduation: 2026)

Student Assistant: CRMS vegetation data analysis in Python

Skylar DeWerff, BS Student Civil Engineering (Expected Graduation: 2026)

Student Assistant: Ecological and environmental data review and cataloguing

Nelson Tull, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, eco-morphodynamic modeling

During his PhD, Nelson Tull studied how river water moves through floodplains during high flows. His work focused on the role of natural levee topography in facilitating the exchange of water, sediment, and solutes between a river and its floodplain over a wide range of river discharges and used a variety of hydrodynamic models, including ADCIRC, ANUGA, and HEC-RAS. At LSU, Nelson is developing an open-source model for the dynamic coupling of dynamic vegetation with Delft3D Flexible Mesh.

• PhD (2024) Civil Engineeging, University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX - USA.
• MS (2018) Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC - USA.
• BS (2016) Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst - MA, USA.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MLYTfLIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Vindhya Prasad, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, ecohydrodynamic modeling

Vindhya Prasad worked on developing a novel bubble screen barrier to capture eggs and larvae of invasive carp using lab experiments. He also investigated the complex flow patterns within and around root canopies of floating vegetation. Using particle image velocimetry (PIV), he analyzed turbulence at various scales, contributing to a deeper understanding of how vegetation influences hydrodynamics. Currently, his research is focused on integrating numerical models for hydrodynamics (ANUGA) and vegetation life-cycle to study their impacts on delta formation.

• PhD (2024) Civil Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign IL - USA.
• MS (2019) Civil Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson SC - USA.
• BTech (2017) Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee - India.

Personal website: http://www.vprasad.in/