Overview
Gabriel G. Katul received his B.E. degree in 1988 at the American University of Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon), his M.S. degree in 1990 at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR) and his Ph.D degree in 1993 at the University of California in Davis (Davis, CA). He currently holds a distinguished Professorship in Hydrology and Micrometeorology at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University (Durham, NC). He was a visiting fellow at University of Virginia (USA) in 1997, the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (Australia) in 2002, the University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2009, the FulBright-Italy Distinguished Fellow at Politecnico di Torino (Italy) in 2010, the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) in 2013, Nagoya University (Japan) in 2014, University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2017, the Karlsruher Institute for Technology (Germany) in 2017, Princeton University (USA) in 2020, and CzechGlobe (Brno - Czech Republic) in 2023. He received several honorary awards, including the inspirational teaching award by the students of the School of the Environment at Duke University (in 1994 and 1996), an honorary certificate by La Seccion de Agrofisica de la Sociedad Cubana de Fisica in Habana (in 1998), the Macelwane medal and became thereafter a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (in 2002), the editor’s citation for excellence in refereeing from the American Geophysical Union (in 2008), the Hydrologic Science Award from the American Geophysical Union (in 2012), the John Dalton medal from the European Geosciences Union (in 2018), the Outstanding Achievements in Biometeorology Award from the American Meteorological Society (in 2021) and later became an elected fellow of the American Meteorological Society (in 2024), and the recipient of the American Meteorological Society hydrologic science medal (in 2025). Katul was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (in 2023) for his contributions in eco-hydrology and environmental fluid mechanics. He served as the Secretary General for the Hydrologic Science Section at the American Geophysical Union (2006-2008). His research focuses on micro-meteorology and near-surface hydrology with emphasis on heat, momentum, carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone, particulate matter (including aerosols, pollen, and seeds) and water transport in the soil-plant-atmosphere system as well as their implications to a plethora of hydrological, ecological, atmospheric and climate change related problems.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
Stemflow Hydrodynamics
Journal Article Reviews of Geophysics · September 1, 2025 Stemflow hydrodynamics is the study of water movement along the exterior surface area of plants. Its primary goal is to describe water velocity and water depth along the stem surface area. Its significance in enriching the rhizosphere with water and nutrie ... Full text CiteTowards smarter green infrastructure: Fusing bark ecology and stemflow hydrodynamics on tree stems
Journal Article Ecological Indicators · September 1, 2025 A wide array of bark surfaces sheath wooded plants in rural and urban areas alike. Much work has examined the function and role of bark in different contexts and different environs, including urban areas, finding that it is rich in life and can play a role ... Full text CiteSpectral distortions to momentum and scalar exchanges by non-turbulent motion and patchy landscape variability
Journal Article Agricultural and Forest Meteorology · August 15, 2025 Modifications to the spectra of turbulent velocity and scalars and co-spectra of vertical fluxes of momentum and scalars due to patchy landscape heterogeneity and non-stationarity are explored for a Mediterranean ecosystem. About 9 months of high frequency ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Collaborative Research: Precursors of long-distance aerial transport of microplastics from urban environments
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2020 - 2025Boundary layer theory for canopies covering complex terrain: Going from eddies in motion to biosphere-atmosphere exchanges and their representation in climate models
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of California - Los Angeles · 2021 - 2025Parameterizing the effects of sub-grid land heterogeneity on the atmospheric boundary layer and convection: Implications for surface climate, variability and extremes
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · 2019 - 2023View All Grants