Research Bio
M. Reza Alam is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include Theoretical Fluid Dynamics, Nonlinear Wave Mechanics, Ocean and Coastal Waves Phenomena, Ocean Renewable Energy (Wave, Tide and Offshore Wind Energy), Nonlinear Dynamical Systems, and Fluid Flow Control.
Born in Yazd, a small historic city at the geographic center of Iran, Reza received his BSc in Mechanical Engineering and MSc in Applied Mechanics from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. He then joined the Mechanical Engineering program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2005, Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2008, and then served as a Postdoctoral associate (2008-2009) and Lecturer (2009-2011) at MIT. In July 2011 Reza joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
Research Expertise and Interest
Theoretical Fluid Dynamics, Nonlinear Wave Mechanics, ocean and coastal waves phenomena, ocean renewable energy (wave, Tide and Offshore Wind Energy), Nonlinear Dynamical Systems, Fluid Flow Control, ocean renewable energy
In the News
Making waves: Turning ocean power into electricity
Ocean waves have vast energy potential. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates the total wave energy resource along the United States coastline at 2,640 terawatts per year. One terawatt can supply more than 93,000 typical U.S. homes with power annually.
Three Bay Area institutions join forces to seed transformative brain research
Two state-of-the-art research areas – nanotech and optogenetics – were the dominant theme last Thursday, Sept. 18, as six researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sketched out their teams’ bold plans to jump-start new brain research.
Seafloor carpet catches waves to generate energy
UC Berkeley Professor Reza Alam, an expert in wave mechanics, is looking to harness the power of big ocean waves by using the seafloor “carpet”, which he proposes will convert ocean waves into usable energy.