Spotlight Profiles
Thorsten Stoesser: Computing Waterways; Impacting Lives
Raised near the River Rhine in Germany, Dr. Thorsten Stoesser defined his career goals early on. “The river was a part of daily life,” he says. “It was frequently in the news for one reason or another and I lived near a tributary.” So it is hardly wonder Stoesser became a river engineer. In fact, the hobby-triathlete and avid outdoorsman says it’s his dream job.
With a strong background in fundamental techniques for modeling fluid dynamics, Stoesser developed hydro3D – a supercomputing software package – as a doctoral student, which today supports his advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Now, Stoesser is working on several initiatives with colleagues at other top institutions such as Oregon State University, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and University of Karlsruhe – his alma mater.
Stoesser says his research interests have evolved since joining the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2006. “My work as a student and post doctoral researcher focused on traditional fundamentals in turbulence modeling,” says Stoesser. “While I still work very well with fundamentalists, I have a growing interest in more practically relevant things that will have a positive impact on quality of life.”
Just a few practical applications in which Stoesser is beginning to lend his expertise include investigations on the effectiveness of vegetation in river and coastal restoration schemes and flow and mixing processes in water storage tanks and disinfection chambers at treatment facilities. Both aim to ultimately improve living standards.
Stoesser is also impacting bright minds at Georgia Tech. He says he has been impressed with students’ enthusiasm for learning so far. “Then again, we are Georgia Tech, so we expect excellence from our students,” he says genuinely.
To read more about Dr. Thorston Stoesser, visit his Web site.