ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Alec Petersen uses the tools of fluid dynamics to explore the flows all around us: from desert dust storms to rainy clouds; from melting glaciers to wildland fires; and from inside our own bodies to the far reaches of the cosmos! He started working with the late Prof. Bob Behringer at Duke University as an undergraduate on granular physics which introduced him to the wide world of flowing matter. He completed his PhD at the St. Anthony Falls Lab at the University of Minnesota with Filippo Coletti where he helped build a novel experimental apparatus to investigate the complex, coupled dynamics between air turbulence and inertial particles. The relevance of this work to cloud microphysics, proto-planetary disks, and volcanic eruptions among others, led him to pursue other instances of geophysical fluid dynamics where multiphase turbulence plays a role. At ETH Zürich, he studied snow transport on the Davos mountainsides in collaboration with The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. At UC Irvine he studied ember transport from wildland fires as well as fire-atmosphere interactions, work which he continues here at ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ.