Jennifer E.D. O’Donnell
Associate Research Professor
Department of Marine Sciences
Expertise: sediment transport and beach erosion, physical oceanography, currents, forecasting
For over 20 years, Dr. Jennifer O’Donnell has been addressing a broad array of practical problems in the coastal ocean environment. Her project work includes analyzing sediment transport and beach erosion in the field and the laboratory, processing and evaluating underwater acoustic signals, and developing ocean environmental impact statements. Dr. O’Donnell has extensive experience developing and evaluating approaches for operational use of physical oceanography including improving the effectiveness of ocean searches through computational modeling, deriving surface currents from satellite oceanography (AVHRR and Synthetic Aperture Radar), evaluating drifting buoy design, identifying environmental data for operational forecasting, and assessing the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for ocean operations.
Dr. O’Donnell’s professional experience includes federal government, industry and academic institutions. She has published technical papers on a variety of subjects including sediment transport, satellite oceanography, underwater acoustic signal processing, and UAVs in refereed journals such as Journal of Underwater Acoustics, Unmanned Systems, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Marine Geology, Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal Fluid Mechanics.
She has a B.S. in engineering and civil engineering from Duke University, a M.C.E and a M.S.c. in coastal and ocean engineering from the University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Cambridge, England.
CIRCA Project(s): Enhancing Coastal Resilience in Connecticut, Coastal Green Infrastructure Resilience Planning: Scoping of Dredge Material Islands and Wetlands for Resiliency Projects along Connecticut Shoreline in Fairfield and New Haven Counties, Matching Funds.
