Thanos Papanicolaou IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa

Vision

Dr. Papanicolaou’s research interests relate to sedimentation processes in watersheds, rivers and estuarine environments.  His team is currently comprised from 2 post doctoral associates, 9 graduate students and 2 undergraduates.    The coupling of numerical models with sensor technology along with advanced biogeochemical tracer is one of the major thrusts of Dr. Papanicolaou’s research program. The development of advanced numerical models to simulate upland transport and fate of sediment and its associated pollutant has allowed Dr. Papanicolaou and his team to quantify the amount of pollutants that reach into receiving waters.  Moreover, development of sensor technology to measure spatial and temporal variations of different parameters allows the utility of this technology to calibrate existing and newly developed models.    Understanding the genesis and evolution of different landform features such as rills, headcuts and gullies are some aspects that currently four of his graduate students are involved with.  The use of carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 natural tracers (patent) allows the source identification of solid derived contaminants and the evaluation of the effectiveness of best management practices at the state and national level.    While the connectivity of different components within a watershed remains a  challenge in 21st century, there are several other hydrodynamic/riverine processes that have been the focus of Dr. Papanicolaou’s research.    Fundamental understanding of the unsteady nature of the flow and sediment in gravel bedrivers is another important topic. The interaction of turbulence with different bed features (clusters, pools and riffles, stepped pools) remains unknown. Such interaction affects the prediction of stage-discharge relationships. This is of paramount importance especially in ungaged gravel bed rivers and mountain streams.  Understanding the interaction of flow and bed morphology is also important for understanding the interaction of surface and subsurface flow and for preventing the pollution of spawning river beds. Pollutant transport through the subsurface can be manifested by processes known in the fluidization and percolation theory.    Finally, Dr. Papanicolaou and his students have looked the performance of hydraulic structures in rivers as they pertain to sediment transport and fish passage. In a nut shell, Dr. Papanicolaou’s research is interdisciplinary and involves the participation of geomorphology, ecology and mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. Dr. Papanicolaou serves in the editorial board of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE and IJSR and is the chairman of the sedimentation committee of the ASCE.  He is also member of several professional societies (e.g., AGU, ASME, AWRA, SWCS, ICOLD) and has served as an advisor to BPA, EPA (Hudson River Study), and USACE-ERDC.  Dr. Papanicolaou has published more than 170 refereed articles, reports and conference proceedings and has received funding over the past 5 years that exceeds 2.1 M.   Papanicolaou's fundamental research goes hand by hand with his practical research.  Over the past 10 years Dr. Papanicolaou has dealt with different sedimentation/hydraulic projects in the Pacific Northwest and most of them relate to fish passage issues and water quality/sediment issues.  Dr. Papanicolaou has dealt with projects focused on the permissible velocity issues as it relates to fish passage through culverts, irrigation diversion structures, rapids and gravel bed streams, submerged weirs and rock weirs.  Dr. Papanicolaou has received funding from several federal agencies for his innovative work in sediment transport (e.g., USACE, USGS, NOAA, NSF, ONR, USDA), state agencies (e.g., WA DOE, WASDOT, IDOT, HCA, IDNR, IDFG, Nebraska Fish & Game), Indian Tribes (e.g., Nez Perce) and public utilities (e.g., AVISTA utilities) to investigate a wide range of hydraulic/environmental issues.  Dr. Papanicolaou has been also subcontracted from Bechtel, International and Parsons for innovative field work in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, WA project.     Dr. Papanicolaou’s undergraduate and graduate students have served the public through their work in several agencies in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and the East coast.  This includes public utilities (e.g., Seattle City Light), State Agencies (e.g., WASDOT), Universities (e.g. University of Kentucky), Cities (e.g., Spokane City), national labs (e.g., PNNL) and consulting firms (e.g., ENSR, NHC).