Prof. Badiey appointed head of POSE program

Mohsen Badiey, director of the Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Program in the College of Marine Studies

4:30 p.m., July 27, 2005--Mohsen Badiey, professor of physical ocean science and engineering, has been appointed director of the Physical Ocean Science and Engineering (POSE) program in the College of Marine Studies at UD. POSE, one of four graduate program areas at the college, uses physics and engineering to study the interactions that occur at the air-sea interface, the physical properties of the coastal ocean, how structures can be built in the nearshore environment, ocean acoustics, nearshore processes and the behavior of fluids in the environment.

Badiey succeeds A.D. Kirwan Jr., Mary A. S. Lighthipe Chair in Marine Studies and professor of physical ocean science and engineering, who served as director of the program since 1999. Kirwan will take a one-year sabbatical before continuing his research at the college.

"I plan to focus my efforts on expanding our program," Badiey said. "Right now, the POSE program serves as a link between the College of Marine Studies and the Ocean Engineering Group within the civil engineering department. I hope to generate excitement about the program to attract students in mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as in physics and mathematics."

According to Badiey, the interdisciplinary nature of the POSE program requires students with diverse backgrounds because each discipline will bring a different strength to the program. Electrical engineering students, for example, have a wealth of knowledge in the processing and analyses of various signals, and mechanical engineering students bring a deeper understanding of fluid mechanics and mechanical instrumentation. Mathematics and physics students are familiar with the techniques used to create a physical model of the coastal ocean.

Students who have graduated from the program have found jobs as scientists, engineers and technicians in academia, industry and government.

A member of UD's faculty since 1990, Badiey conducts research on ocean acoustics, or the study of sound transmission in the ocean, as well as acoustical oceanography, which is the use of sound waves to study the properties of the ocean. In particular, his research efforts focus on the shallow-water or nearshore coastal environment. Soon after joining the faculty, he established the Ocean Acoustics Laboratory to study the propagation of acoustic and seismic waves in shallow water.

Badiey's research will be used to help develop and optimize the performance of acoustic systems for a variety of environmental, industrial and naval applications, including underwater communication and finding objects such as submarines and mines. In addition, conducting oceanographic research using sound waves provides a powerful remote-sensing technique to study the ocean from within.

Recently, Badiey has led a team of marine scientists who have equipped the Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse, located in the Delaware Bay, with additional meteorological and oceanographic sensors. These sensors continuously record data such as air temperature, wind and current speed and direction, and water temperature as part of the Delaware Bay Observing System that will be part of a national network, located along the northeast coast, for long-term observation of the air-sea interface.

Before coming to UD, Badiey spent two years at the Port and Harbor Research Institute in Japan as a postdoctoral research fellow. From 1992-95, he worked as program director for ocean acoustics basic research at the Office of Naval Research in Washington, D.C.

Badiey holds a joint appointment in UD's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He earned his doctoral degree in ocean engineering and applied marine physics from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami in Florida. He also has a master's degree in structural engineering and a bachelor's degree in engineering mechanics--both from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.