It has been a whirlwind batch of months for the JETlab, so we are long overdue for an update. We have all logged a LOT of airline miles this year! We’ve all continued to dig further into our turbulence research, and are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (cough cough, papers and graduation dates!) for a few of us! Some of our highlights:
Blair returned from NRL Stennis in August with a renewed zest for lab work, since she finally ran her own experiments and got to learn how to do tomographic PIV, while playing with all sorts of wonderful equipment and with fantastic mentors and collaborators. Her semester was subsequently filled with seminars galore — presenting the group’s research at various universities and getting to visit other labs — always a joy. It is a delight to meet with the faculty and graduate students at different universities, and to feel inspired by the innovation happening everywhere. In Fall 2022, Blair visited the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Johns Hopkins University (her alma mater!), CalTech, and MIT. This spring, Blair has already visited the University of New Hampshire, and heads to the SAFL lab this coming week — high on her bucket lists of super awesome labs to visit! We hope it lives up to her expectations!!
We also had lots of conference travel. Po-Chen ventured solo to the Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference in Pensacola in October, and then to the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Chicago in December. Aubrey, Arefe, and Blair went together to the American Physical Society – Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Indianapolis in November (brr!!!), where we got to reunite with JETlab alum Julio (presently at UW for his PhD!) and lots of other friends. Blair also had a rapid trip to DC for the SERDP Symposium in December. Everyone’s talks and posters went fabulously at all of their visits, and it is exciting to see everyone continuing to grow their networks and gain inspiration for new ideas and future paths through these opportunities.
Our famous 1972 flume is soooooooo close to being done! All that remains is to seal up each end, where the glass and acrylic join up with the original steel plates, and to fit a tube into the mystery-threaded drain at the bottom. Please keep all fingers and toes crossed for when we add water in very near future!! Moment of truth, whether it was all worthwhile. We hope so!
We are on the cusp of submitting several papers on the excellent research happening with our turbulence tanks, so stay tuned. We also have two new undergraduate researchers, Riley and Ella, who have been a joy to work with as they learn about lab work and image analysis. We are also hoping to welcome a few new faces to the JETlab for Fall 2023, and can’t wait to see how our admissions process continues! Lots to come …