Patrick Joseph Lynett

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Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Education

  • Doctoral Degree, Civil Engineering, Cornell University
  • Master's Degree, Civil Engineering, Cornell University
  • Bachelor's Degree, Civil Engineering, Cornell University

Biography


Patrick Lynett was born in New York City on March 19th, 1975. He attended Cornell University from 1993-2002, where he received three degrees from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Immediately after completing his Ph.D. thesis, he started the position of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. Lynett was a member of the 2005 International Tsunami Survey Team to Sri Lanka, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Coastal Impacts Survey Team sponsored by ASCE, the post-tsunami survey team in American Samoa in 2009, and numerous surveys throughout the Pacific after the 2011 Japan tsunami. Dr. Lynett has been the recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Geological Survey, the Texas Sea Grant Program, the Office of Naval Research, and private industry. Since 2003, he has been a Primary Investigator (P.I.) or co-P.I. on research and equipment grants totaling $8.2 million, including three large, collaborative NSF research grants of over $1 million each, two of which he was the lead P.I.. Notable awards include the Department of the Army Commander's Award for Public Service given for Dr. Lynett's post-Katrina work, and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010.

Research Summary


His research interests are directed towards a better understanding of coastal processes, such as nearshore circulations, wave evolution from generation to the shoreline, multi-scale hydrodynamic interactions, and sediment transport. Investigations combine numerical modeling with both controlled experiments and field observations. Short time-scale coastal hazards, such as hurricanes and tsunamis, are of particular interest.

Awards


  • 2016 ASCE-Los Angeles Outstanding Civil Engineer in Research
  • 2016 ASCE-Los Angeles Outstanding Civil Engineering Advisor
  • 2013 ASCE Walter L Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize
  • 2010 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Guggenheim Fellowship
  • 2008 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Department of the Army Commander's Award for Public Service
  • 2006 Texas A&M University Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Select Young Faculty
  • 2002 Offshore, Ocean and Arctic Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Best Graduate Student Paper Award
Appointments
  • Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Office
  • KAP 224D
  • Kaprielian Hall
  • 3620 South Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90089
  • USC Mail Code: 2531

Contact Information
  • (213) 740-3133
  • lynett@usc.edu

Links


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