Fabrice Veron, assistant professor in the College of Marine Studies, has received an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award
for research he is conducting on air-sea interactions and fluid dynamics.

The prestigious honor, which is given by the U.S. Navy to young scientists who show exceptional promise in marine-related research, includes $300,000 in grant money for Veron’s research over the next three years.

Veron, who has been teaching graduate-level courses on ocean fluid dynamics and conducting research at the Air-Sea Interaction Lab in Lewes since joining the University in 2002, was one of only 28 recipients chosen for the award this year, from an applicant pool of 212.

According to a letter from the Department of the Navy, “Veron emerged successfully from a very competitive pool because of his academic achievements, his ability to contribute to the strength of the nation’s research and development and the commitment to him expressed by University administrators.”

Veron’s research will aid the Navy in accumulating general information about the exchange of energy between the surface of the ocean and the atmosphere—in particular, the role of water droplets, such as rain and sea spray.

“In the Navy, the exchange of wind-to-water energy is an area of research in which much work still remains to be done,” Veron says. “The research will help with basic collection of information and also with predictive activities.”

Veron, who will divide his research between experiments in the lab and numerical data extraction using a specialized computer, credits the University’s facilities for boosting his grant proposal’s success.

“The College of Marine Studies has a large wind-wave tank at the lab in Lewes, which is one of the largest and better-equipped marine labs in the world,” he says. The computer that Veron will use in his research will be funded by the grant money.

Veron, who has been pursuing his research on air-sea interactions and fluid dynamics for many years, says the U.S. Navy award is a high honor that encourages him intellectually as well as professionally.

“I think it’s an endorsement of all the young researchers and their careers,” he says.

Veron received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Bordeaux, in France, and earned his doctoral degree in applied ocean sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Before joining the UD faculty, Veron was a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution. He has published several articles on his work in various marine research journals.

         —Becca Hutchinson