Ryan Lowe is a Professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. He grew up in Laguna Beach, California before pursuing an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California – San Diego, and later a PhD at Stanford University in 2005 with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Ryan has worked at the University of Western Australia since 2007 and is presently an ARC Future Fellow.
Ryan’s research involves the study of how oceanic and atmospheric forcing drives the circulation and distribution of wave energy within a broad range of coastal systems (e.g., on coral reefs, beaches, and rocky shorelines). In most cases, this work is motivated by the need to improve our understanding of the coupling between hydrodynamics and other key processes occurring in marine environments, such as sediment transport, nutrient dynamics and spatial ecology. As part of this work, his research group employs a wide range of field, laboratory and numerical modelling techniques. Ryan’s research over the past decade has had a major focus on the oceanography of coral reefs, with a particular emphasis on understanding the dynamics of both wave- and tide-dominated reef systems in remote northwestern Australia.
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