Navy Honors Florida Tech Professor with Young Investigator Award
MELBOURNE, FLA.—Steven Jachec, Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor, Department of Marine and Environmental Systems, College of Engineering, was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the Department of the Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) program. Jachec’s research, “Acoustic Properties in the Presence of Shoaling and Breaking Internal Waves over Complex Topography, a Numerical Modeling Study,” is one of the 21 proposals selected from 18 colleges and universities. The prize of $10.8 million will be allocated to the winning scientists and engineers. Jachec will receive approximately $170,000 over three years.
The award identifies creative researchers in science and engineering who hold doctoral degrees or have held tenure-track positions within the past five years. The goal of the ONR program is to support and promote researchers from academic institutions who demonstrate compelling naval-relevant research. The Navy received more than 270 applications this year and since its inception in 1985, the ONR has named 554 award recipients from 118 academic institutions.
Jachec earned his master’s degree in ocean engineering from Florida Tech in 2001 and his doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University in 2007. His research interests involve developing and applying numerical simulations to solve fluid flow problems in the coastal ocean. He focuses on field-scale processes to understand problems relevant to the general population, but also strives to understand fundamental flow physics in simplified cases.
