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Launching in Fall 2022

Evan A. Variano

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Email: variano@ce.berkeley.edu

Phone: (510) 642-2648

Office location: 648 Sutardja Dai Hall

Evan A. Variano is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. Variano’s research focuses on environmental fluid mechanics & the physics of fluid motion in the environment. His expertise includes a variety of phenomena on a variety of scales, from microscopic mixing to the coupled ocean-atmosphere system that transports heat and Carbon Dioxide around the globe. An understanding of fluid mechanics is crucial for an engineer whose goal is to restore or preserve a natural environment (e.g., wetlands, rivers, or the ocean) or design a system in which water or air flow must be controlled (e.g., ventilation, treatment, or turbomachinery). 

Variano’s research explores cutting-edge experimental techniques to make measurements of fluid phenomena, with a particular emphasis on the phenomena of turbulence and solute transport. His measurements occur in the laboratory or in the field and are motivated by engineering problems for which existing models and approximation methods fall short of stakeholder needs.

Research Description

Variano’s research focuses on the dynamics of transport and mixing in environmental flows, specifically exploring management approaches for wetlands that control the emission of greenhouse gases, sediments in water quality, and capture by wetlands or other hydrodynamic processes, and the science of how organisms are shaped by the flow in their habitat. The research techniques that he is currently developing include imaging flows with dense vegetation or sediment suspensions, flow-structure interaction for free-floating or loosely anchored structures, and measuring the flux of gases and aerosols at interfaces.

Research Interests

  • Environmental fluid dynamics
  • Novel imaging for flow measurements
  • Mixing & transport by turbulence
  • Flow & transport in wetlands
  • Hydrodynamic effects on aquatic organisms
  • Aerosol transport
  • Inquiry & inclusive education
  • Mental wellness

Education

  • Postdoc, Geochemistry, Columbia University, 2008
  • Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, 2007
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, Cornell University, 2005
  • B.S., Physics, Princeton University, 2000

Awards

  • UC Berkeley Presidential Chair Fellow
  • Hellman Faculty Fellow
  • ASCE Student Chapter award 2009: Most Involved Professor
  • UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Mentor award 2018.
  • UC Berkeley Excellence in Lab Safety Award 2018.

Publications

  • Oehmke, T. and E.A. Variano, 2020 “A New Particle for Measuring Mass Transfer in Turbulence,” Experiments in Fluids, In press, doi.org/10.1007/s00348-020-03084-5.
  • Bordoloi, A.D., Variano, E.A., and Verhille, G., 2020, “Lagrangian Time Scale of Passive Rotation for Mesoscale Particles in Turbulence,” Frontiers in Marine Science 7:473. doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00473
  • Bordoloi, A.D., Lai, C., Clark, L., Carrillo, G., and Variano, E.A., 2020, “Turbulence statistics in a negatively buoyant multiphase plume,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 896, A16. doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2020.326
  • Allen, R. M., Lacy, J. R., Stacey, M. T., and Variano, E.A., 2019, “Seasonal, spring‐neap, and tidal variation in cohesive sediment transport parameters in estuarine shallows,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124, 7265–7284. doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014825
  • Byron, M.L., Yiheng Tao, Houghton, I.A., and Variano, E.A., 2019, “Slip velocity of large low-aspect-ratio cylinders in homogeneous isotropic turbulence,” International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 121, 103120. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2019.103120.
  • Pujara, N., Oehmke, T. B., Bordoloi, A. D., and Variano, E. A., 2018, “Rotations of Large Inertial Cubes, Cuboids, Cones, and Cylinders in Turbulence,” Physical Review Fluids, 3(5).  doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.054605
  • Foster-Martinez, M.R. and Variano, E.A., 2018, “Biosolids as a marsh restoration amendment,” Ecological Engineering, 117, 165–173. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2018.02.012.
  • Foster-Martinez, M.R., J.R. Lacy, M.C. Ferner, and Variano, E.A., 2018, “Wave attenuation across a tidal marsh in San Francisco Bay,” Coastal Engineering, 136, 26–40. doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2018.02.001.
  • Poindexter, C. M., Baldocchi, D. D., Matthes, J. H., Knox, S. H., and Variano, E. A., 2016, “The Contribution of an Overlooked Transport Process to a Wetland’s Methane Emissions,” Geophysical Research Letters, 43(12), p. 2016GL068782.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068782
  • Lambert, R. A. , and E. A. Variano, 2016, “Collision of oil droplets with marine aggregates: Effect of droplet size,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, special issue on Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 121, 3250–3260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015JC011562
  • Foster‐Martinez, M. R., and Variano, E. A., 2016, “Air‐water Gas Exchange by Waving Vegetation Stems,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 121(7), pp. 1916–1923.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JG003366