Press Release for Thursday, March 7, 2019
UNF Engineering Professor Recognized for Lifetime Achievement
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Media Contact: Amanda Dawson, PR Specialist
Department of Public Relations
(904) 620-2192
Dr. Don Resio, University of North Florida
professor of ocean engineering and director of the Taylor Engineering Research
Institute in UNF’s College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, has been
recognized for his lifetime achievements in marine meteorology.
Resio, a Nocatee/Ponte Vedra resident, accepted
the Vincent Cardone Memorial Prize for Marine Meteorology, administered by the Society for Underwater
Technology, February 26 in a ceremony during the Catch The Next Wave
conference as part of the Oceanology International Americas Exhibition and
Conference at the San Diego Convention Center.
The award is named after marine meteorologist
Vincent J. Cardone, who was co-founder and president of Oceanweather Inc. Shortly
after Cardone’s death, a few of his friends including Ralph Rayner, Society for
Underwater Technology president, developed the memorial prize in his name.
“I was honored to receive an award named after
the single marine meteorologist in the world that I most respected both for his
work and as a person,” Resio said.
The award comprises a Campbell Stokes Sunshine
Recorder engraved with the prize winners name. Selection of the award winner is
made by a committee, which includes previous prize winners. Resio is the second
recipient and first U.S. citizen to receive the honor.
Resio’s recent research has focused on
solutions for coastal vulnerabilities within the U.S., including generating
economically significant power from waves and tides, the development of
improved rapid causeway/bridging replacement technologies for disaster relief,
methods for sealing large breaches in levees and improved risk estimation
methods, in addition to his continued research in oceanography and marine
meteorology.
Before joining UNF, Resio served as senior
technologist for the Army Corps of Engineers and directed the Army’s Program
for Coastal Disaster Response/Mitigation. He has been a leader in
meteorological and oceanographic research for over 40 years, spearheading many
efforts that have contributed significantly to improving predictions for winds,
waves, currents, surges and coastal evolution due to storms and to better
understand coastal hazards.
He was co-leader of the post-Katrina
Interagency Performance Evaluation Taskforce and led the risk analysis team for
the South Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project, looking into the effects of
climatic variability on hurricane characteristics in the Gulf of Mexico. This
team developed a new technical approach for hurricane risk assessment, which
serves as part of the foundation for much of the approach to risk along U.S.
coastlines today.
Under the sponsorship of the Department of
Homeland Security, Resio led a team of researchers in the development of
innovative methods for the rapid repair of levee breaches. This work offered
new options for improved flood mitigation in many areas of the U.S. and is now
being implemented in a full-scale deployment in Lake Okeechobee, Florida.
Resio has published numerous articles in
leading international journals and has been the keynote speaker at many
national as well as international conferences on ocean/atmospheric physics and
statistics. He served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations’ Joint WMO-IOC
Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology in the area of
climate effects and the ocean. He also serves as a reviewer for many national
and international efforts to quantify coastal hazards and risks, including a
recent week-long review of the Indian Institute of Technology’s (New Delhi)
program on cyclone flooding in the north Indian Ocean.
Additionally, Resio served as the co-chair of
the U.N. World Meteorological Organization Coastal Inundation and Flooding
Demonstration Project until 2017, helping to direct an international group of
scientists and engineers to mitigate current and future global flooding risks.
His expertise has played a critical role in helping countries around the world
understand, quantify and mitigate coastal inundation risks.
UNF, a nationally ranked
university located on an environmentally beautiful campus, offers students who
are dedicated to enriching the lives of others the opportunity to build their
own futures through a well-rounded education.
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