Gabriel G. Katul
Theodore S. Coile Distinguished Professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorology

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 the Theodore S. Coile Professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorology at the Nicholas School of the Environment and 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, and Princeton University (USA) in 2020. He received several honorary awards, including 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), and the Outstanding Achievements in Biometeorology Award from the American Meteorological Society (in 2021).  He served as the Secretary General for the Hydrologic Science Section at the American Geophysical Union (2006-2008).  Research in Katul's lab 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 Research Interests

Describing the reciprocal influences between the biosphere and the atmosphere are becoming a scientific imperative as human-induced changes in land surface characteristics are impacting the composition of the atmosphere, which in turn is threatening to excite changes in weather and climate systems. The concentration of efforts to quantify these influences and to develop a predictive framework for them has given rise to a new research field labelled "land-atmosphere exchange".  This field is now populated by a community of scientists and engineers originally trained in a cross-section of disciplines.  My particular research interests in this domain cover mass, momentum, and energy transfer within the soil-plant-atmosphere system.  This domain intersects micro-meteorology, surface hydrology, ecology and carbon/water cycling, and fluid dynamics that spans low and high Reynolds numbers.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Contact Information

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