Gary Parker
Gary Parker’s major research interests are the mechanics of sediment-laden flow in rivers and turbidity currents, and resulting flow-boundary morphodynamic interactions. His current efforts focus on delta evolution, bedrock bedrock-alluvial transitions, bedrock meandering, drainage network formation, advection-dispersion of tracer pebbles, formation of continental shelves, muddy tidal morphodynamics, role of washload in rivers, long-runout turbidity currents and natural dam formation in meteogenic travertine systems. His work on meandering rivers led to his selection as winner of the 7th Prince Abdul Aziz Surface Water Prize, awarded at the United Nations headquarters in New York in November 2016. Parker has received numerous other honors over the years, including the Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award (2016), the Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award (2014), the American Geophysical Union G. K. Gilbert Award (2014), and the BSG Wiley Blackwell Award (2012).
Professor Parker joined the Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE at Illinois) in 2005. He holds a B.S. from the Department of Mechanics and Materials Science of John Hopkins University and a Ph.D. from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his position on the CEE at Illinois faculty, Parker holds a 25 percent appointment in the Department of Geology, where he is the W.H. Johnson Professor of Geology.