Meagan Wengrove

John and Jean Loosley Faculty Fellow 2023-2025

Assistant Professor
Civil & Construction Engineering
meagan.wengrove@oregonstate.edu
Research interests

Hailey Bond

Ph.D. Student 2022-Present, received M.S. in 2020
Cobble Berm Research

Hailey is a doctoral student in coastal and ocean engineering. She is originally from Costa Mesa, CA. She earned her B.S. in civil engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and her M.S. in coastal and ocean engineering at Oregon State University (2018-2020). Hailey’s M.S. research focused on the intradune hydrodynamics of coastal dune instability during erosive wave conditions. After her M.S., she worked with Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development as a Natural Resource Policy fellow, where she created a guidebook compiling information on coastal erosion control in Oregon. Hailey’s PhD research is focused on quantifying the mobility of dynamic cobble berms and quantifying engineering metrics for dynamic cobble revetment design.

Nadia Cohen

Ph.D. Student 2020-Present, received M.S. in 2023
Glacier Ice Research

Nadia received her B.S. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an undergraduate, she worked as an intern with the U.S. Army Engineer and Development Center’s Field Research Facility in Duck, NC, during which she assisted in the design, construction, networking, and deployment of low-cost mini-Argus systems, a video camera system used for coastal monitoring and research. Their image products provide estimates of shoreline and sandbar positions, wave characteristics, alongshore currents, and bathymetry. These undergraduate experiences sparked a deep interest in coastal and ocean physics and instrumentation for Nadia. Her Ph.D. focus is on quantifying morphologic length scales and drag coefficients on near vertical glacier-ice surfaces at icebergs and a tidewater glacier in Alaska. In her free time, she enjoys clamming, surfing, SCUBA diving, and hiking.

Kaelan Weiss

Ph.D. Student 2021-Present
Glacier Ice Research

Kaelan is a physical oceanography Ph.D. student in the College of Earth, Atmospheric, and Ocean Science. He earned his B.S. in Physics at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he participated in a number of research cruises studying internal waves and thermal dynamics on Lake Superior. Through these experiences, he developed a deep interest in observational, physics-based oceanography and a love for working at sea. Kaelan’s current research focuses on understanding how ice melt and turbulent ocean dynamics are coupled together at the faces of melting icebergs and glaciers. His work includes designing and building robotic instrument platforms that allow scientists to make small-scale observations in the hazardous environment around flipping icebergs and calving glaciers. He hopes that this work will improve our understanding of melting glaciers in the broader climate system. Away from work, Kaelan enjoys reading, surfing, mountain biking, and playing the guitar.

Carly Ringer

Ph.D. Student 2023-Present, received M.S. in 2023
Dune Research

Carly is a doctoral student in marine geology student in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. She is originally from Normal, Illinois, and earned her B.S. in Geography/GIS from Brigham Young University. Carly studies sand dune morphology on the Oregon coast, with an emphasis on the differences between dunes that are managed for various ecosystem services. As part of her master’s work, she co-developed a new Oregon Coastal Dunes Management Guidebook to provide science-based guidance on dune management practices. For her PhD work, she is investigating modeled impacts of a Cascadia Subduction Zone tsunami on the dunes and the potential for the dunes to protect homes and infrastructure. Carly is passionate about improving the relationships between humans and the environment and increasing community resilience to coastal hazards. Prior to coming to OSU, Carly worked as a software product engineer at ESRI in Redlands, California.

Marcela Ijfu

Ph.D. Student 2022-Present
Fiber Research

Marcela Ifju is a first-year coastal and ocean engineering Ph.D. student at Oregon State University. She is originally from Florida where she attended the University of South Florida, earning her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergraduate she was an intern with the UGA Marine Institute, studying coastal resilience with Oysters and Mussels in the salt marshes of coastal Georgia. Through her engineering background, and her work with marine ecology, she became inspired to continue studying the intersection between engineering and the marine environment with a specific focus on physical oceanographic processes. Her Ph.D. study is focused on using a form of fiber optic monitoring, known as Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), to better understand waves in the coastal environment. During her free time, she enjoys surfing, climbing, hiking, and hanging out with her cat Suki.

Colin Arnowil

M.S. Student 2023-Present

Cobble Research

Colin is a Coastal Engineering Master’s student at Oregon State University. After growing up in Corvallis he completed a B.A. in Economics at OSU in 2010. Colin then worked with his family as a jeweler and goldsmith for many years. He came back to school for engineering to explore an interest in engineering with nature, and the interface between the built and the natural environments. His M.S. research focus is on quantifying the distribution of cobble size and variability over high water level and wave forcing on natural composite beaches and constructed dynamic revetments. In his free time Colin enjoys espresso, casual bicycling, and spending time with his wife, baby daughter, and dog.

Hannah Glover

2022-Present
Fiber Research

Hannah graduated from Bowdoin College in 2013 with a BA in Earth and Oceanographic Science. After graduating she worked as a field engineer at the Applied Physics Lab at UW, building and maintaining oceanographic moorings for the ORCA and NEMO programs. In 2016 she started graduate school at the University of Washington, working with Andrea Ogston in the Sediment Dynamics Group. Her Masters focused on the impacts of the Elwha River dam removals. Her PhD work focused on sediment transport in the Ayeyarwady River delta, Myanmar, and in Tauranga Harbor, New Zealand. Hannah joined the Wengrove Lab in 2022, where she is focusing on the use of fiber optics for nearshore monitoring. Outside of work, Hannah enjoys backpacking, doing puzzles, and hanging out with her 15 year-old dog.

Quentin Laporte-Fauret

2022-present

Dune Research

Quentin graduated from the University of Bordeaux (France) with a Bachelor’s in Geology and a Master’s in Coastal Oceanography. He then completed his Ph.D. there as well, where his research utilized a new conceptual approach to promote coastal dune remobilization by foredune notch excavation. He developed a morphological monitoring protocol using UAV photogrammetry and an accurate classification method of sedimentary cover and plant species using their hyperspectral signature. After his Ph.D., he held a postdoctoral position at the University of Bordeaux where he investigated the morphological evolution of a freely evolving dune system dissected by many blowouts. In the Wengrove Lab, he is interested in the effect of vegetation on dune morphology, including differences between native and invasive species, and he conducts this research using Lidar surveys of the plants and assimilates the data into an aeolian sediment transport – dune evolution model to better characterize the dune evolution according to the plant species present.

Christa van IJzendoorn

2023-present

Dune Research, Cobble Berm Research

Christa is a coastal researcher with a BSc and MSc degree in Earth Sciences from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She worked at the Flood Risk Management department of Deltares in 2018, and earned her PhD in Coastal Engineering from Delft University of Technology in 2023. With her research into aeolian sediment transport she aims to improve the implementation of nature-based solutions and the prediction of coastal dune development. Within the Wengrove lab, she studies aeolian sediment transport on composite beaches and models dune development along the coast of the PNW. 

Selwyn Heminway

2023-present