- Stephen Monismith
- Principal Investigator
Stanford University
monismith@stanford.edu
A native of the golden state of California (which doesn’t have coral reefs but does have kelp), I received my B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering all from UC–Berkeley, eventually focusing my studies on the sometimes arcane subject of fluid mechanics, although before entry as a freshman I had thought to study marine biology (which wasn’t really offered at Cal). Learning to dive this year, I have perhaps continued my journey towards marine biology . Prior to arriving at Stanford University in 1987, I was a post–doc in the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia from 1983 to 1986, where I got my first real taste of “messing around in boats”, AKA doing field work. In the intervening 18 years, my research in environmental and geophysical fluid dynamics has involved the application of fluid mechanics to rivers, lakes, estuaries (including my local one, San Francisco Bay), and the oceans. Much of this work has focused on the connection of hydrodynamics and biology, a subject that has provided us (my students and I) with a mother–load of good problems to work on. In the last few years I have been fortunate to associate with two friends and colleagues (one of whom, Amatzia Genin, is involved with this mission) who have gotten me involved with their research on coral reefs. This effort now involves 4 Ph.D. students, 2 post doctorates, and 2 faculty in our lab working on everything from modeling flow through a single coral colony to large field studies of flows over a reef community like that which we are attempting during the present mission. I am grateful to NURC, NSF, ONR and the State of California, for their support of my research.
