![Headshot portrait of Stephen Monismith - Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering](https://biox.stanford.edu/files/styles/profile_thumbnail/public/monismith.webp?orig=png)
Stephen Monismith's research in environmental and geophysical fluid dynamics involves the application of fluid mechanics principles to the analysis of flow processes operating in rivers, lakes, estuaries and the oceans, with a particular interest in the ecological impacts of those flows. His current research includes studies of estuarine hydrodynamics and mixing processes, flows over coral reefs and on the inner shelf, turbulence in density stratified fluids, and physical-biological interactions in phytoplankton and benthic systems. Current projects include field and computational work on wave-driven flows over coral reefs, stratified turbulence due to shoaling internal waves, benthic grazing on coral reefs and in kelp forests, dispersion in complex estuarine tidal flows, and lab and computational studies of flows through coral colonies. He is also involved with various scientific panels focusing on the San Francisco Bay/Delta including the IEP Science advisor group (which he chairs) and the recent NRC committee reporting on the sustainability of the Delta as a water supply system and as an ecosystem.
Professor Monismith is currently director of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory and Chair of Stanford University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, He is a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering. Prior to coming to Stanford, he spent three years in Perth (Australia) as a research fellow at the University of Western Australia.