SAFL Welcomes New Associate Director of Research

On December 1, 2014, the role of Associate Director of Research will transition from Dr. Miki Hondzo to Dr. Lian Shen.

SAFL’s Associate Director of Research seeks to facilitate interdisciplinary research opportunities across the University of Minnesota, mentors new faculty members, assists in new research facility development, and helps implement the vision and goals of the Lab.  

For the past 11 years, this role has been ably filled by Dr. Hondzo (Professor of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering), who began serving as the Associated Director of Research in 2003. During this time, Dr. Hondzo was a significant part of the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), helped author the grants that secured funding for the historic SAFL renovation, helped implement the renovation, and instrumental in developing and building the Outdoor Stream Lab. Once his responsibilities as Associate Director are lessened, Dr. Hondzo will continue to conduct research at SAFL on topics such as biofuel production, ecological fluid mechanics, and aquatic invasive species control.  

Dr. Shen (Benjamin Mayhugh Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering) joined SAFL in 2012, coming from Johns Hopkins University as a member of the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. During his brief time at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Shen has already been hard at work on research involving surface boundary layers, microscale flows, waves, offshore wind farms, hydrodynamics, and high-performance scientific computing under a number of large grants from the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. Dr. Shen’s new role will begin with the implementation of the SAFL Strategic Plan, which was developed during 2014 and explores the future directions of SAFL in research, outreach, and education.