Professional Background:

Rick Luettich

Sewell Family Term Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences

Rick Luettich has an undergraduate and master’s degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech and a doctor of science in civil engineering from MIT.  He serves as the Director of UNC’s Institute of Marine Science, which is comprised of approximately 75 residential faculty, staff and students located on the coast in Morehead City, North Carolina.  He also serves as Director of the UNC Center for Natural Hazards and Disasters in Chapel Hill and is the lead-PI on the Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence in Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management (DIEM).

He has published over 100 scientific papers and reports on modeling and observational studies of physical processes in coastal systems.  His modeling has emphasized the development and application of unstructured grid methods that are optimized for geometrically complex systems such as sounds, estuaries and tidal inlets.  He has been one of the principal developers of the ADCIRC coastal circulation and storm surge model and has overseen applications ranging from hindcasts and forecasts of tidal circulation and storm surge/inundation along the US coast to interdisciplinary studies such as physically mediated migration and larval dispersal.  Recently he has led efforts to apply ADCIRC to predict near shore oil movement from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

ADCIRC has been a cornerstone of US Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA storm surge studies that include forensic studies in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, planning studies for new hurricane protection systems for the Northern Gulf of Mexico coastline and coastal flood risk studies along the Gulf of Mexico and US East Coast for the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program.  It is also being used in pilot storm surge forecasting projects.

Luettich has served on two recent National Academy/National Research Council committees – one reviewing the Army Corps’ study of the factors that led to the catastrophic damage to New Orleans by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the second reviewing the Army Corps’ program to evaluate options for a new hurricane protection system for Southern Louisiana.

Luettich’s observational studies have included moored and shipboard sampling to characterize physical processes in coastal systems and have often been oriented toward understanding the role of physical processes in areas of water quality (e.g., algal blooms, dissolved oxygen depletion) and fisheries recruitment.  He has actively contributed to the national Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (IOOS) programs.