Research Expertise and Interest

environmental fluid mechanics, wind energy applications, clouds, large-eddy simulation, turbulence modeling, atmospheric boundary layer flow, flow over complex terrain, wildfire smoke transport, methane emissions, urban dispersion modeling, urban air quality

Research Description

Fotini Chow is the Fred and Claire Sauer Chair Professor in Environmental Engineering and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The research in her group focuses on numerical modeling of the atmospheric boundary layer to improve predictions for air pollution dispersion, greenhouse gas emissions, and wind energy, among other applications. The analytical and computational methods that they develop help to quantify climate change mitigation strategies, air pollution effects, and to improve weather and transport models.

Current projects include wildfire smoke modeling, methane emissions modeling, urban dispersion modeling, and improved numerical techniques for turbulence, representation of topography, and grid nesting, among others.