Professor Gary Parker is one of seven new members appointed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Center for Advanced Study (CAS) permanent faculty, effective August 16, 2020. This appointment is one of the highest forms of academic recognition bestowed by the university upon faculty members. Parker was selected for this honor based on his many significant contributions to and extremely high standing in his field.
Parker joined the CEE faculty in 2005, where he teaches courses in fluid mechanics, river engineering and sediment transport. His research focuses on morphodynamics, the study of landscape and seascape changes in response to erosion and sedimentation associated with rivers, debris flows and turbidity currents. He has received numerous honors for his work, including election to the National Academy of Sciences (2017), the 7th Prince Abdul Aziz Surface Water Prize (2016) and the Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award (2014). He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2003.
In addition to his faculty appointment at CEE, Parker holds a 25 percent appointment as the W.H. Johnson Professor of Geology in the Department of Geology. He holds a B.S. (1971) from the Department of Mechanics and Materials Science of John Hopkins University and a Ph.D. (1974) from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
CAS was established in 1959 to promote the scholarship and discourse among top university faculty, and to identify the best scholars at the university. CAS Professors are permanent members of the Center. With the Associates and Fellows, they form the core of the Center for Advanced Study Community. The CAS appointment does not affect Parker’s faculty position in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
Read more about the seven new CAS faculty at https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1804230405.