Frank and Julie Tsai Travel Award

Learn more about the Frank and Julie Tsai Travel Award

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History of the Award

Frank and Julie Tsai are both graduates of the University of Minnesota. Dr. Tsai earned an M.S. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in civil engineering in 1968. Julie Tsai received her Master's degree in library science from the University of Minnesota in 1964.

After years of supporting St. Anthony Falls Laboratory through annual gifts, the Tsais decided in 2000 to leave a lasting legacy to express their appreciation for their University experience. They chose to do this through a testamentary bequest and a pledge of an outright gift to establish the endowed fund that supports the Tsai Travel Award.

Nomination Guidelines and Rules

Full-time graduate students whose research is performed at SAFL are invited to submit a proposal for funding to travel to a professional conference. Preference is given to students who will be presenting their research results at the conference and who have had a manuscript on their research accepted for publication in a referred journal in the previous 12 months. 

The maximum amount of the award is $500. Students may receive a maximum of two travel awards, one in the Master's program, and one in the Ph.D. program (if applicable) during their studies.

Interested students should submit:

  • A letter proposal, endorsed by the advisor, which explains why the travel award is needed. 
  • An itemized estimate of travel expenses and funding sources.
  • A resume that includes a list of publications.
  • If relevant, the abstract of the paper to be presented at the conference and proof of acceptance. If the paper is submitted but not yet accepted, the student is encouraged to submit the application without the acceptance letter.
  • If relevant, a copy of a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal in the previous 12 months, or a letter from a journal indicating acceptance of a paper for publication.

Send applications to SAFaward@umn.edu.

Past Recipients

Year Recipient Traveled to Conference To present research on
Fall 2021 Reyhaneh Rahimi New Orleans, LA American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

 Vulnerability of Passive Microwave Snowfall Retrievals to Physical Properties of Snowpack: A Lesson from Radiative Transfer Modeling
Fall 2019 Tianyi Li Seattle, WA 72nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Determining surface divergence in free-surface flows: convergence and solution of a nonlinear Volterra-type integral equation
Fall 2019 Lun Gao San Francisco, CA American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting Physically Constrained Inversion of Radiative Transfer Models in L-band for High-resolution Retrievals of Soil Moisture and Vegetation Optical Depth from Space
Fall 2019 Vinicius Taguchi

Burlington, VT

 North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) 39th International Symposium Low Dissolved Oxygen in Stratified Stormwater Ponds and Implications for Internal Loading
Fall 2018 Douglas Carter Atlanta, GA

71st Annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (APSDFD)

 

The effect of background air turbulence on liquid spray
Fall 2018 Vinicius Taguchi Cincinnati, OH

North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) 38th International Symposium

Some Stormwater Ponds Release Phosphorus
Fall 2018 Nicholas Rodgers Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

Complex retreat behavior in experimental barrier island response to base level rise
Fall 2018 Lun Gao Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

 

A combined dynamically constrained inversion for super-resolved L-band soil moisture retrievals
Fall 2018 Rachel Lonchar Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

Peatland methane emissions driven by interaction of soil temperature and water table
Fall 2018 Sagar Tamang Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

Contrasting changes in Snowfall Dominant Regimes at Hemispherical Scale
Fall 2018 Mirko Musa Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

Experimental evidence of river morphodinamic instabilities forced by finite asymmetric flow perturbations
Fall 2018 Jiaqi You Washington, D.C.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting

Micro-algal Swimming Velocities Signal Growth Phase and Lipid Accumulation
Spring 2017 Douglas Carter Chicago, IL

Tenth International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena (TSFP10)

Generating and controlling homogenous turbulence using randown jet arrays
Fall 2017 Michael Heisel Denver, CO

70th Annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (APSDFD)

Characterization of turbulent flow structures in the atmospheric boundary layer through super-large-scale particle image velocimetry
Fall 2017 Lucia Baker Denver, CO

70th Annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (APSDFD)

Experimental study of dense suspension of large particles in a turbulent boundary layer
Fall 2017 Brandon Sloan New Orleans, LA

2017 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting

Parametrizing evaporative resistance for heterogeneous sparse canopies through novel wind tunnel experimentation
Fall 2017 Gerard Salter New Orleans, LA

2017 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting

Deterministic chaos in a model of a simple delta network
Fall 2017 Olivia Beaulieu New Orleans, LA

2017 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting

River terrace formation and destruction demonstrated by base-level fall experiments
Fall 2017 Sida He Denver, CO

70th Annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (APSDFD)

Numerical study of interactions among air, water, and rigid/flexible solid bodies
Spring 2017 Abigail Tomasek Raleigh, NC Society of Freshwater Science Annual Meeting How does inundation affect denitrification in agricultural landscapes?”
Spring 2017 Alec Petersen Chicago, IL

Tenth International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena

“Experimental study of particle-turbulence interaction in homogeneous turbulence.”
Fall 2016 Saurabh Chawdry Portland, Oregon 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics "Field scale simulation of axial hydrokinetic turbines in a natural marine environment"
Fall 2016 Mirko Musa Portland, Oregon 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics "Advancing marine hydrokinetic turbine arrays towards large-scale deployments in sandy rivers: a laboratory study"
Fall 2016 Anne Wilkinson Portland, Oregon 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics "Understanding Abiotic Triggers for Cyanobacteria Blooms in Lakes Using a Long Term In-situ Monitoring Research Station"
Fall 2015 Maria Garcia-Serrana San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union "Evaluation of an Infiltration Model with Microchannels"
Fall 2015 Zeinab Takbiri San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union "Microwave Signatures of Inundation Area.”
Spring 2015 Mohammad Hajit Regina, Saskatchewan CSCE “A computational model for large eddy simulation of dilute bubbly turbulent flows.”
Spring 2015 Craig Hill The Hague, Netherlands Internaional Association for Hydro-Environmental Engineering Research

“Hydrokinetic turbine models in complex channel topography: local scour, sediment transport and device performance.”
Spring 2015 Jon Schwenk Iquitos, Peru  River, Coastal, and Estuarine Morphodynamics "Process and form: bend-scale morphodynamics along the Ucayali River from satellite imagery."
Spring 2015 Abigail Tomasek Milwaukee, Wisconsin Society of Freshwater Science “Quantifying the effects of environmental variables on the composition and activity of denitrifying microbial communities.”
Fall 2014 Mohammad Danesh-Yazdi San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union “Self-dissimilar Landscapes: Probing into Causes and Consequences via Multi-scale Analysis and Synthesis.”
Fall 2014 Ali Ebrahimian Houston, Texas International Low Impact Development  “Determining Effective Impervious Area as a Measure of Actual Connectedness in Urban Watersheds.”
Fall 2014 Maria Garcia-Serrana Houston, Texas International Low Impact Development  “Infiltration Performance of Dry Swales.”
Fall 2014 Ashish Karn San Francisco, California American Physical Society  “An Integrative Image Measurement Technique for Dense Bubbly Flows with a Wide Size Distribution.”
Fall 2014 Zeinab Takbiri San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union “Quantifying Frequency-Magnitude Shifts in Rainfall-Runoff Relationships in Human Dominated Landscapes: The case of Midwestern U.S.”
2013 Jon Czuba San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union “Vulnerability assessment to flux amplification in river basins: A dynamic network approach and impact decomposition.”
2013 Mohammad Hajit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania American Physical Society “A computational model for large eddy simulation of dilute bubbly turbulent flows.”
2013 Adam Witt Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania American Physical Society “Void fraction and bubble size in a simulated hydraulic jump.”
2012 Antoni Calderer San Diego, California American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics “Coupled level-set CURVIB method for fluid-structure interaction simulations of arbitrarily complex floating rigid bodies.”
2012 David Escobar Sanabria San Diego, California American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics  “Modeling of Longitudinal Motion of a High Speed Supercavitating Vehicle.”
Fall 2011 Shahram Missaghi Perth, Western Australia International Congress on Modeling and Simulation “3D water quality modeling of a morphologically complex lake, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, and examples of model applications”
Fall 2011 Bereket Yohannes San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union "Boundary Stresses due to Impacts from Dry Granular Flows"
Spring 2011 Corey Markfort Vienna, Austria European Geosciences Union  “Effect of porosity on ABL evolution over a canopy patch in a stable atmosphere: a wind tunnel study"
2010 Arvind Singh Vienna, Austria European Geosciences Union  "Complexity and Multi-scale Dynamics of Migrating Dunes under Varying Flow Conditions" 
2010 Anwar Chengala Las Vegas, Nevada West Coast Chapter of the National Algae Association   
2009 *No award given*      
2008  Omar Abdul Aziz Honolulu, Hawaii American Society of Civil Engineers  
2008 Chandana Gangodagemage Fort Lauderdale, Florida American Geophysical Union "New Scaling Considerations in River Basins: combining drainage path geometry and link lengths"
2007 Feng Wan Vienna, Austria European General Science Union  "Evaluation of Dynamic Subgrid-scale Models in Large-eddy simulations of Neutral Turbulent Flow over a Two-dimensional Sinusoidal Hill"
2006 James Robert Stoll Vienna, Austria European General Science Union  “Surface Heterogeneity Effects on Regional Scale Fluxes in stable Boundary Layers: An LES Study"
2005 Ben O'Connor Salt Lake City, Utah American Society of Limnology and Oceanography  "Quantity-activity of Dentifying Bacteria and Nitrate Variability in Streams" 
2004 Damian Kawakami Seattle, Washington American Physical Society  "Periodicity of Sheet Cloud Cavitation" 
2004 Wonsuck Kim San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union "Autogenic Shoreline Responses to Fluvial Change"
2004 Ben Sheets Coimbra Portugal International Association of Sedimentologists  "Multi-storey Architechture and Sedimentation in an Experimental Alluvial System"
2004 Lisa Tilman San Francisco, California American Geophysical Union "Scaling of Hydrologic Parameters of Braided Rivers"