Consultant and Expert Witness: Coastal Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, Oil Spills and Marine Structure-Dams & Pipelines

Expertise

• Civil Engineering Hydraulics: Fluid mechanics related to civil engineering structures such as dams, open channels and pipelines.
• Coastal Engineering: Water wave mechanics; harbor and marina problems; ship and mooring issues; coastal structures such as breakwaters, seawalls, piers and landfills.
• Costal Engineering: Storm damage; oil spillage in harbors; armor protection of submarine outfalls.
• Ocean Engineering: Water wave mechanics; ocean structures and Naval Architecture.
• Served as an expert witness in a wide range of fluid related problems ranging from a personnel injury lawsuit in a case in a steel mill near Los Angeles to a multi-million dollar damage lawsuit caused by an oil leakage from a ship in the port of Los Angeles.

Selected Studies

• Wide range of coastal engineering studies: Wave mechanics and wave-structure interactions in the near shore region: Dynamics of harbors exposed to continuous trains of waves (or to transient waves) and their interaction with moored-floating bodies.
• Tsunamis studies: The generation, propagation, and coastal effects of tsunamis -- earthquake generated sea-waves.
• Breaking waves studies: Investigation of the action of breaking waves on an armored bottom to the study of the mechanics of plunging breaking waves and the air entrainment by bow waves of ships.

Experience

Independent Consultant, Present

• Consultant to various organizations on problems in hydraulics and coastal engineering. List of clients include such firms as:
  • Bechtel Corporation
  • Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
  • Southern California Electric Company
  • Standard Oil of California
  • Port of Long Beach
  • Los Angeles County Sanitation District
  • Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
  • U.S. Naval Civil Engineering Lab
  • Coastal Engineering Research Center (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
  • Moffatt and Nichol Engineers
  • Engineering Science, Inc.
  • Walt Disney Corporation
  • John Carollo Engineers
  • Brown and Caldwell Engineers
  • J.G. Reutter Association
  • Byron Jackson Pump Company
  • United Nations
  • Warzyn Engineers
  • Boyle Engineers

California Institute of Technology, Emeritus, CA, 1962 - Present

• Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 1997 - Present
• Professor of Civil Engineering, 1972 - 1997
• Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, 1967 - 1972
• Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, 1962 - 1967

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962

• Ford-Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant
• Professor of Civil Engineering

Honors & Publications

Credentials

• Registered Civil Engineer, State of California
• Registered Civil Engineer, State of New Jersey

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Society of Civil Engineers
• National Academy of Engineering
• Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers
• International Association for Hydraulic Research
• International Association of Navigation Congresses
• Chairman of Task Committee on Long Period Waves (ASCE)
• Member of Task Committee on Mooring Stresses (ASCE
• Hydraulics Group of the Los Angeles Section
• Marine Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Engineering
• Coastal Engineering Research Board of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Awards

• John G. Moffatt-Frank E. Nichol Harbor and Coastal Engineering Award; American Society of Civil Engineers
• International Coastal Engineering Award; American Society of Civil Engineers

Publications

• 202 Publications and selected engagements.

Education

• Sc.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• B.E. The Johns Hopkins University