About

Marcelo H. Garcia holds the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Endowed Chair of Civil Engineering and serves as Director of the Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1990, becoming a full professor in 2000. Prof. Garcia received his Water Resources Engineering Diploma at Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) in Santa Fe, Argentina, while working full-time on the Parana Medio Hydropower Project at Agua y Energia Electrica (AyEE). First conference publication on the erosion of clays in the Parana River was at the IAHR Latin American Congress in Mexico (1982). First journal publication was in IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research (1987). Since 2000, He has served as adviser for the IAHR Student Chapter at Illinois, and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hydraulic Research, 2001 to 2006. and Editor in-Chief and co-author of the ASCE Manual of Engineering Practice 110 "Sedimentation Engineering," published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (2008). Participated in many conferences and in particular in most Latin American Congresses, except one, since 1994, giving keynote lectures and teaching short courses. Organized River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics (RCEM) Symposia and River Flow Conference. Recognized with IAHR Arthur Thomas Ippen and M.S. Yalin Lifetime Achievement Awards as well as ASCE Hunter Rouse and H.A. Einstein Awards, the Walter Huber Research Award, the Karl Emil Hilgard Prize (twice) for best in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, and the Chandler-Misener Award for most notable paper published in Journal of Great Lakes Research in 2011, from International Great Lakes Association (IAGLR). In 2001, Professor garcia was named a University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining UIUC, he was a Research Fellow for two years at St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, University of Minnesota, where he also completed his graduate studies (MS'85, PhD'89)in Civil Engineering. In 2001, he was invested as Chester and Helen Siess Endowed Professor of Civil Engineering and as an Honorary Professor at his alma mater, Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL). Dr. Garcia teaches undergraduate courses on Water Resources Engineering and Hydraulic Analysis and Design. At the graduate level he teaches Environmental Hydrodynamics, Sediment Transport, River Mechanics, Mixing in Environmental Flows and Open-Channel Hydraulics. His teaching has been recognized with his name appearing numerous times in the List of Professors Ranked as Excellent by Their Students. Dr. Garcia is also the Founding Director of the Centro Internacional de Grandes Rios (CIEGRi) at UNL, Santa Fe, Argentina. Dr. Garcia has supervised and supported the completion of 40 Ph.D. dissertations and 65 M.S. thesis students. Four of his PhD students have been recognized with the Lorenz G. Straub Award for most meritorious PhD Dissertation in hydraulic engineering, ecohydrology, and geophysical fluid dynamics Garcia delivered the Inaugural Lecture at Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua, Cuernavaca, Mexico, the Borland Hydraulics Lecture, AGU Hydrology Days, at Colorado State University, the Enrico Marchi Lecture, Italian Association of Hydraulics, Italy, the Donald Harleman Distinguished Lecture in Water Resources Engineering at Penn State University. He has been an invited professor at the University of Genoa, Italy, the California Institute of Technology, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Garcia is a Distinguished Member (Honorary) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as well as an Inaugural Fellow of its Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI). His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Us Geological Survey, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development program (SERDP),and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the state level, Dr. Garcia has received support from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC), the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program. Has served in several national committees and represented the US with the International Upper Great lakes Study to assess flow conveyance changes due to sediment erosion in the St. Clair River He serves in several national and international boards and has consulted both nationally and internationally in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Mexico. Garcia is a corresponding member in the USA of the National Academy of Engineering of Argentina.

Career Type:

Scientist/Researcher/Academic

Organization Type:

Universities and Academia

Expertise Fields/Interests:

Rivers, Sediment Transport, Morphodynamics, Environmental Fluid mechanics, Oscillatory Boundary-Layer Flows

Major Achievements:

Dr. Garcia research interests have evolved from his early work on sediment transport by turbidity currents in lakes and oceans . His pioneering observations of turbidity currents in the laboratory provided insight about the mechanics of submarine sedimentation, including the first direct observations of internal hydraulic jumps and the deposits created by flows laden with poorly-sorted sediments. Measurements of sediment entrainment made it possible to assess the erosive power of turbidity currents and their ability to transport sediment deep into the oceans, providing a missing link in the source-to-sink saga. Interest in the mechanics of sediment transport resulted on research in sediment entrainment from riverbeds and coastal areas, flow and transport in vegetated channels, meandering streams and rivers and the dynamics of mudflows and debris flows. Large scale laboratory experiments with model continental margins made it possible to learn about the role played by turbidity currents on strata formation with support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). A Large Oscillating Water-Sediment Tunnel has been used to research oscillatory boundary-layer flows and ripple morphodynamics under field-like conditions. A custom-made Kinoshita meandering flume has been used to investigate the morphologic impact of meander skewness and secondary flows in high-amplitude bends. RVRMeander has been used to provide guidelines in stream restoration projects involving re-meandering of channelized streams. Current research efforts involved sedimentation hazards due to dam and embankment failures, dynamics of mudflows, development of rapid response models for oil spill containment after pipeline rupture, and risk of flooding in alluvial fans. Garcia's group has also conducted extensive research on scour and burial of pipelines and objects in oscillatory boundary layer flows, in oil spill dynamics and rapid response following the Kalamazoo River oil spill as well as the transport and fate of invasive species eggs in rivers. Over a decade his group has developed hydrologic and hydraulic models to predict urban flooding and the performance of the "Deep Tunnel" during extreme rainfall events in Chicago, Illinois. Implementation of a 3D hydrodynamic model of the Chicago River led to the discovery of salt-laden density currents activity along the bottom during the winter months. A complete hydrodynamic and water quality model, including sediment diagenesis to capture oxygen demand at the sediment water interface, has been implemented by Garcia's group to assess the water quality conditions in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). His applied research has also focused on improving the performance of stormwater management and wastewater treatment infrastructure with the help of computational techniques to protect Chicago's waterways and Lake Michigan, the main source of fresh water for Northeastern Illinois. Most important has been the work to increase safety at low-head dams by modifying spillways and providing canoe passages to prevent drowning accidents in Illinois. Garcia's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the state level, Dr. Garcia has received support from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC), the Illinois Water Resources Center, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program and the Sanitary District of Decatur, Illinois. Most experimental research is conducted in the state-of-the-art experimental facilities of CEE's Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory, Grainger College of Engineering, which has recently undergone renovations as part of the new Civil and Environmental Engineering Building and Smart Bridge Construction.