PhD students Jon Czuba and Ashish Karn presented with 2015 Edward Silberman Fellowships

At a special SAFL Seminar on November 17th, 2015, SAFL PhD students Jonathan Czuba and Ashish Karn were presented with the 2015 Edward Silberman Fellowship for outstanding academic achievement and research.

Jonathan Czuba is a PhD candidate in Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Working with advisor Efi Foufoula Georgiou, his research aims to integrate the complex interactions between physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring on a river network by simplifying the underlying processes to time delays and transformations on a network. Thus far, Jon has primarily focused on sediment but is in the process of extending his work to nutrients. The result is a first-order, watershed-scale framework capable of identifying emergent hotspots of change for guiding sustainable landscape management. 

 Ashish Karn is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His doctoral research aims at speed enhancement and controllability of high–speed underwater vehicles for naval defense applications and environment-friendly power generation through next-generation aerating hydroturbines. These research objectives are addressed through the investigations into fundamental fluid dynamics of bubbles at different size scales when air is entrained inside water. A large bubble is used to envelop an underwater vehicle causing tremendous reduction in flow resistance while the small bubbles are employed for aeration applications in a hydroturbine. Our experiments have provided critical insights into the design and development of operational strategies and models for these novel technologies. Ashish is advised by Jiarong Hong and Roger Arndt.

Congratulations to Jon and Ashish!  

Learn more about the Edward Silberman Fellowship.