Press Release for Thursday, March 7, 2019

UNF Engineering Professor Recognized for Lifetime Achievement

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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