Research

Patrick Lynett attended Cornell University from 1993-2002, where he received three degrees from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Immediately after completing his Ph.D. thesis, he started the position of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University.  In 2011, Lynett moved to the University of Southern California, where he is on the faculty of the Civil Engineering Department.  His research interests are directed towards a better understanding of coastal processes, such as nearshore circulations, wave evolution from generation to the shoreline, multi-scale hydrodynamic interactions, and sediment transport.  Investigations combine numerical modeling with both controlled experiments and field observations.  Short time-scale coastal hazards, such as hurricanes and tsunamis, are of particular interest.  Lynett was a member of the 2005 International Tsunami Survey Team to Sri Lanka, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Coastal Impacts Survey Team sponsored by ASCE, the post-tsunami survey team in American Samoa in 2009, numerous surveys throughout the Pacific after the 2011 Japan tsunami, numerous post-hurricane surveys along the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines, and recently a survey in south-eastern Alaska to document the 200-m high tsunami generated by the Taan Fjord landslide.  Dr. Lynett has been the recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the United States Geological Survey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NOAA Sea Grant Program, the Office of Naval Research, various California state agencies, and private industry.  Notable awards include the Department of the Army Commander's Award for Public Service given for Dr. Lynett’s post-Katrina work, a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, and the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.