Kirby Awarded Sea Grant Funds to Study Rip Currents

by Diane Kukich, adapted from a UDaily story, June 11, 2007

June 12, 2007

Jim Kirby, Edward C. Davis Professor, is one of more than two dozen scientists selected to receive research funds through the Delaware Sea Grant College Program, a statewide effort based at the University of Delaware. The grants, totaling more than $1.3 million a year for the next two years, will support marine research, education, and public outreach projects critical to Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region.

The federal grant, which is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will be matched by more than $500,000 annually from the state of Delaware and nearly $700,000 each year from the University of Delaware.

The grant will support 17 projects in biotechnology, ecosystems, environmental technologies and engineering, marine commerce and transportation, and marine education, literacy and outreach.

In the environmental technologies and engineering area, Kirby will collaborate with Chandra Kambhamettu, Associate Professor of Computer & Info Sciences, and James MacMahan, formerly Assistant Professor in CEE and now with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. The team will develop a tool that will lead to better predictions of when and where rip currents are likely to occur. This will help lifeguards and other public safety officials as they work to keep beachgoers out of harm's way.

In a related study, MacMahan, Kirby, and Research Assistant Professor Fengyan Shi will use laboratory experiments and rescue data to investigate the factors responsible for rip current outbreaks. The study is anticipated to aid in rip current forecasting and improve techniques for rescuing bathers caught in rip currents.

To see "live" rip current action at Delaware's Bethany Beach, go to http://sandcam.coastal.udel.edu/beth/