Earlier this month, MIT Oceanographer Glenn Flierl traveled to Kyoto, Japan, to give a series of lectures on fluid dynamics in earth and planetary sciences. The
annual workshop, hosted by a consortium of Japanese universities and research institutes, aims to promote fluid dynamics as a fundamental language to describe and understand geophysical phenomena.
Flierl’s research focuses on geophysical fluid dynamics and the impacts of ocean flow on the distribution of tracers and biology.Over the course of four days, he presented five lectures on the dynamics of geophysical vortices and jets, as well as discussed his work with the iGlobe and research on the influences of physics and collective behavior on the aggregation of copepods—aquatic crustaceans that are the primary food for endangered right whales.
Flierl holds a PhD in Physics from Harvard University (1975) and joined the MIT faculty in 1976. Previous invited lecturers from MIT include Professor of Metorology Alan Plumb in 2010 and Emeritus Professor of Meteorology Richard Lindzen in 2006.
For more on Professor Flierl’s work, read this profile
here.