Coastal HAzaRds Modeling lab
Dr. Maitane Olabarrieta
Dr. Maitane Olabarrieta
Associate Professor
Maitane Olabarrieta received her doctorate in marine science and technology from the University of Cantabria in Spain in 2006. Her research interests cover diverse oceanographic and long-term morphodynamic evolution problems that affect our coasts. She studies processes such as atmosphere and ocean momentum exchange processes during hurricanes and extreme storms, the generation mechanisms of meteotsunamis, short-term estuarine processes, and the storm and long-term evolution of tidal networks and inlets.
Graduate Students
Zhendong Cao
Christian Rojas
Legna Torres
Amanda Tritenger
Luming Shi
Zhendong obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees in Marine Environmental Science in Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China. His research mainly focused on the numerical modeling of coastal circulation and nearshore mass transport. He transferred to University of Florida in 2014. His present research is the numerical study of baroclinic effects on long-term morphodynamic evolution in estuaries. Zhendong graduated in May 2018.
Christian's passion is to understand coastal processes led him to pursue a PhD degree at the Coastal Engineering department of the University of Florida. Since being admitted in fall 2015, Christian has been analyzing the sediment bypassing mechanism in mixed-energy tidal inlets using multispectral images and numerical modeling at Matanzas Inlet (FL).
Legna got her PhD. at the University of Florida. She combined observational and the numerical model data over large scale regions to understand circulation, waves, sediment transport and potential impacts of the reef on coastal vulnerability.
Amanda got her PhD. at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There, she studied Coastal Engineering and is focusing on data analysis techniques. Her research specifically focused on understanding near shore processes and modeling them effectively in a two dimensional simulation. Amanda graduated in May 2018.
Luming is a PhD. candidate at the University of Florida. His research focuses on the analysis and modeling of meteotsunamis.
Undergraduate Students
Tristen Townsend
Tristen is a 4th year majoring in Mathematics and Environmental Science and minoring in Sustainability Studies. My research interests are tidal dynamics in estuaries, sediment transport and inlet morphodynamics.
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Visiting Graduate Students
Huidi Liang
Huidi Liang is a visiting scholar whose research is focused on coastal morphodynamics and long term morphodynamic evolution numerical models. Specifically, she is very interested on the responses of hydrodynamics to sea level rise and on the effects of human activities and climate change on coastal evolution.
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