Professor Marcelo H. Garcia has been recognized by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) as one of this year’s Researchers to Know from universities across Illinois. The ISTC’s annual list highlights faculty conducting groundbreaking research on campuses throughout Illinois. ISTC recognized Garcia for dedication to his field of study and outstanding achievement in research.
This year’s researchers include those working to protect the environment and mitigate climate change, advancing energy and sustainability, pioneering cybersecurity and analytics, and advancing medical technology and life sciences.
Garcia has been on the CEE at Illinois faculty since 1990, where he is the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering and Director of the Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory. His current research interests are in wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 informed by stormwater simulations of virus transport and decay in sewer networks; hydraulics of Roman aqueducts, urban flooding and excess water management during extreme storm events; river mechanics, including meandering streams, bank erosion, morphodynamics and movable-bed physical modeling; sedimentation hazards such as mudflows, alluvial fans, non-Newtonian hyperconcentrated flows and rheological properties; riverine sedimentation, coastal engineering and morphodynamics.