Assistant Professor Rafael Tinoco Lopez has been recognized with a 2023 Campus Distinguished Promotion Award. Tinoco will be promoted to Associate Professor with tenure as of August 2023, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. The Campus Distinguished Promotion Award, received by only ten scholars in 2023 , recognizes promotion cases that are exceptionally strong, based on the scope, quality and impact of scholarship, teaching, service and engagement efforts. The award comes with a $3,000 discretionary fund to support the faculty member’s scholarly activities.
Tinoco's research at the Ecohydraulics and Ecomorphodynamics Laboratory (the EEL) focuses on the interactions between hydrodynamics and aquatic ecosystems. He received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2018 to study and quantify the effects of aquatic ecosystems in gas transfer processes in natural waters, from the water-sediment interface to the water surface. His research group has addressed challenges from aquatic invasive species with support by and in collaboration with the US Geological Survey, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, as well as working with the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory to assess optimal conditions for deployment and operation of micro-hydropower systems in streams.
Tinoco joined the CEE at Illinois faculty in 2015, where he teaches courses in Water Resources Engineering and Science. He holds a Civil Engineering degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2005) and M.S. (2008) and Ph.D. (2011) in Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology from Cornell University.