Keynote speakers for River Flow 2024

River Flow 2024 is happy to announce the invited Keynote Speakers.

Professor Enrica Viparelli

Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia

Enrica Viparelli received her doctorate in 2008 at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and was a post-doctoral researcher at the Hydrosystems Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from January 2008 to December 2011. She was hired as assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Carolina in January 2012 and was promoted to professor in January 2023. Her research interests are on the study of transport, erosion and deposition of non-uniform sediments with application to fluvial, coastal and submarine morphodynamics.

Professor Maarten Kleinhans 

Professor Water and Sand, Chair of Biogeomorphology of Rivers and Estuaries, Faculty of Geosciences, Universiteit Utrecht

Maarten Kleinhans got his PhD on sediment transport and bedforms of sand-gravel mixtures in 2002 with the highest distinction and has since then switched back and forth between rivers, coasts and the sea, and between Earth and Mars. Some career grants, including an ERC Consolidator, helped to build up a program that includes effects of lifeforms on the landscape patterns formed by estuaries. One of the first meandering rivers and the first estuary and the first Martian delta formed in his laboratory experiments. He also works with primary education on science literacy and publishes in history and philosophy of science. Playing with water, sand and plants has thus remained a very serious activity.

Professor Janet Hooke

Professor of Physical Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool

Janet Hooke obtained her BSc from Bristol University and her PhD from Exeter University. She is a fluvial geomorphologist specialising in research on river meanders and river channel changes, particularly the spatial and temporal dynamics of morphological changes, the impact of hydrological variations and flood events, the analysis of sediment processes, fluxes and connectivity, and the interaction of fluvial processes with vegetation. She works in both semi-arid and humid fluvial systems. As well as publishing > 140 research papers, books and book chapters, she has advised on environmental management of rivers, catchments and coasts, especially in relation to erosion and flooding.

She has managed over 30 research projects, including an EU project on combating land degradation. She was awarded the 2009 Busk Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, UK, for her field research into river systems and their conservation. Much of her work has concerned development of strategies for sustainable environmental management and application of the principles of ‘Working with nature’ She is a past Chair of the British Society for Geomorphology.

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