Ehab Meselhe, Ph.D., P.E., is Professor in the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering at Tulane University. Dr. Meselhe has more than 25 years of experience researching coastal wetland hydrology, sediment transport, and computer modeling of coastal wetland, estuarine, and riverine systems. He worked as an educator, researcher, and practitioner with extensive experience working with academic institutions, government agencies, and the private sector. Dr. Meselhe served as Louisiana’s technical lead for the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Study and helped build the numerical models that provided a foundation for Louisiana’s 2012 and 2017 Coastal Master Plans. Dr. Meselhe was heavily involved in the numerical modeling used by Louisiana to refine the design of sediment diversions at Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton along the Mississippi River.
Dr. Meselhe is a registered Professional Engineer in the sates of Iowa and Louisiana. He also served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydrology (Elsevier), and the Journal of Hydraulic Research (International Association of Hydraulic Research).
Contacts:
emeselhe@tulane.edu
Dr. Kelin Hu
Ph.D, 2003, East China Normal University, China
Leading modeling expert
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Research Interests:
Modeling of storm surge, hurricane waves, sediment transports and morphological changes in coastal and estuarine areas.
Ahmed Khalifa
Starting Fall 2023
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Ahmed Khalifa was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt – the city AKA the Bride of the Mediterranean. He has been interested in earth surface processes since childhood and has pursued this interest through a B.S. and an M.S. in civil engineering at Alexandria University, Egypt and into a research career in coastal engineering. Ahmed’s dedicated work and understanding of the physics behind engineering practices gained him a research position among 24 candidates out of two thousands of his peer who applied for the National Water Research Center (NWRC), Egypt. Ahmed worked for 5 years at the Coastal Research Institute (CoRI) under the umbrella of the NWRC where he had the opportunity to assess – through research and consultancy – many coastal hazards and phenomena in many zones on the Nile delta such as erosion/deposition, shoreline change, storm surge, and coastal flooding. Ahmed longed to expand his understanding to larger spatial and temporal scales, so now, he is undertaking a PhD in Prof. Meselhe’s lab at the River-Coastal Science and Engineering Department, Tulane University.
Ahmed considers himself very lucky to be capable of pursuing a research career and working on two of the most engineered coastal deltas in the world – the Nile and the Mississippi. Ahmed is part of a team studying morphodynamic landscape evolution in the Mississippi River Delta. He is in the process of developing a computationally efficient biophysical model that consists of three components: (1) a three-layered 3D hydrodynamic model, (2) a 2D morphodynamic model, and (3) a recently developed marsh inundation framework. The applications of this new biophysical model include examine hundreds of environmental drivers’ permutations, climate change projections, and optimization of sediment diversion operations.
Graduate Students
Claire Kemick
Ali Abdelrahim
Emma House
Starting Fall 2022
Originally from Rhode Island (the Ocean State), Emma’s educational background is in environmental engineering from the University of Delaware. Driven by a data-scarce master’s thesis project, her future research interests include numerical modeling of riverine and coastal areas and using machine learning techniques for improved water resource monitoring and flood predictions. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outside, traveling, and making pottery. Emma is passionate about environmental equity, climate change impact mitigation, and intentional positivity.
Sherif Ahmed
Starting Spring 2022
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Research Interests:
Hydrodynamics, morphodynamics, sediment transport and numerical modelling in fluvial and coastal areas.
Laura Manuel
Starting Fall 2020
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Research Interests:
Hydraulic modeling with sediment and nutrient transport in riverine, estuarine, and coastal systems for the purposes of developing operational forecasting models.
Eric White
Starting Fall 2018
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Research Interests:
Undergraduate Students
Kiley Marandino
Starting Spring 2022
Kiley is originally from Miami, Florida where her love for the environment started. She is in the undergraduate class of 2025 at Tulane University and currently studying to earn her chemical engineering degree. Kiley hopes to someday use her degree to help work against climate change. In her free time, she loves spending time in nature and being with her family.
Research Interests:
Environmental Engineering.
Sophie Ohtake
Starting Fall 2022
Mikey Sison
Starting Fall 2022