Biography

Dr. Greg Lawrence holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics and has been a faculty member at UBC since 1987.  Focusing on the impact of the fluid mechanics of inland and coastal waters on water quality, chemistry and biology, Lawrence is investigating techniques to minimize the environmental impact of waste discharge; restoring and rehabilitating lakes and other water systems that have been polluted.  Dr. Lawrence was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2011 and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering in 2012, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Camille Dagenais Award for his contributions to the development and practice of hydrotechnical engineering in Canada (2011), the BC Premier’s Award (2010), and the Journal of Environmental Engineering Editor’s Award (2001). Dr. Lawrence is also an instructor in the UBC Master of Engineering Leadership in Integrated Water Management.

Research Interests

Environmental fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrodynamic stability and mixing, physical limnology, water quality management.

Courses

CIVL 215 Fluid Mechanics I

CIVL 541 Environmental Fluid Mechanics

CIVL 542 Physical Limnology

CIVL 598L Contemporary Topics in Physical Limnology

Awards & Recognitions

• 2018-2020, 2nd Year Student Appreciation Award, UBC Civil Engineering Club
• 2016, Visiting Research Fellow, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Western Australia
• 2014, 2nd Year Student Appreciation Award, UBC Civil Engineering Club
• 2013, Elected Fellow, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
• 2012, Elected Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering
• 2011, Camille Dagenais Award, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
• 2010, Premier’s Award – Partnership Category, Government of British Columbia
• 2008, Gledden Visiting Senior Fellowship, University of Western Australia
• 2001, Tier I Canada Research Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics
• 2001, Editor’s Award, Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE
• 1993-1994, Gledden Visiting Senior Fellowship, University of Western Australia
• 1993-1994, Izaak Walton Killam Faculty Research Fellowship, University of British Columbia
• 1990, Runner-up for the J. C. Stevens Award
• 1987, Lorenz G. Straub Award, University of Minnesota
• 1984, University of California Nonresident Tuition Scholarship
• 1983-1984, Regents Fellowship, University of California
• 1982-1983, Hans Albert Einstein Memorial Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley
• 1979-1982, Hackett Overseas Studentship, University of Western Australia
• 1977, O. F. Blakey Memorial Prize, W. Australian Division of the Institute of Engineers, Australia
• 1976, Winzar-Telford Prize, University of Western Australia
• 1972, IBM Mathematics Prize, IBM
• 1971-1972, Australian Commonwealth Secondary Scholarship

Publications

• D. Hurley, Lawrence, G. A., and Tedford, E., “Effects of Hydrocarbons on Wind Waves in a Mine Pit Lake”, Mine Water and the Environment, vol. 391294111753697165932125351843125443504274319, no. 3C554C4231056342152, pp. 455 – 463, 2020.
• J. Olsthoorn, Bluteau, C. E., and Lawrence, G. A., “Under‐ice salinity transport in low‐salinity waterbodies”, Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 6544, no. 2, pp. 247 – 259, 2020.
• Y. E. Imam, Laval, B., Pieters, R., and Lawrence, G. A., “The baroclinic response to wind in a multiarm multibasin reservoir”, Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 651428, no. 3, pp. 582 – 600, 2019.
• J. Olsthoorn, Tedford, E. W., and Lawrence, G. A., “Diffused-interface Rayleigh-Taylor instability with a nonlinear equation of state”, Physical Review Fluids, vol. 4, no. 9, 2019.
• W. Dong, Tedford, E. W., Rahmani, M., and Lawrence, G. A., “Sensitivity of vortex pairing and mixing to initial perturbations in stratified shear flows”, Physical Review Fluids, vol. 4, no. 6, 2019.
• A. J. K. Yang, Tedford, E. W., and Lawrence, G. A., “The spatial evolution of velocity and density profiles in an arrested salt wedge”, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 403 – 408, 2019.
• M. F. Schmid, Lawrence, G. A., Parlange, M. B., and Giometto, M. G., “Volume Averaging for Urban Canopies”, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, vol. 1736903631323516416241301213256160106303840148114971225661813333272218665661340132816167789760, no. 3, pp. 349 – 372, 2019.
• E. Tedford, Halferdahl, G., Pieters, R., and Lawrence, G. A., “Temporal Variations in Turbidity in an Oil Sands Pit Lake”, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, 2018.
• C. E. Bluteau, Pieters, R., and Lawrence, G. A., “The effects of salt exclusion during ice formation on circulation in lakes”, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 579-590, 2017.
• M. Rahmani, Seymour, B. R., and Lawrence, G. A., “The effect of Prandtl number on mixing in low Reynolds number Kelvin-Helmholtz billows”, Physics of Fluids`, vol. 28, 2016.
• M. Fazeli, Jamali, M., Lawrence, G. A., and Seymour, B. R., “Growth and damping of interfacial waves on a diffuse interface”, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 401-412, 2016.
• G. A. Lawrence, Tedford, E. W., and Pieters, R., “Suspended solids in an end pit lake: potential mixing mechanisms”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 43, pp. 211-217, 2016.
• R. Pieters, Coady, W., Ashley, K. I., and Lawrence, G. A., “Artificial circulation of a mine pit lake”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 33-43, 2015.
• M. Rahmani, Lawrence, G. A., and Seymour, B. R., “The effect of Reynolds number on mixing in Kelvin-Helmholtz billow”, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 759, pp. 612-641, 2014.
• M. Rahmani, Seymour, B. R., and Lawrence, G. A., “The evolution of large and small-scale structures in Kelvin-Helmholtz billows”, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, vol. 14, pp. 1275-1301, 2014.
• R. Pieters and Lawrence, G. A., “Physical processes and meromixis in pit-lakes”, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 569-578, 2014.
• A. Guha and Lawrence, G. A., “A wave interaction approach to studying non-modal homogeneous and stratified shear instabilities”, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 755, pp. 336-364, 2014.
• Y. E. Imam, Laval, B. E., and Lawrence, G. A., “The baroclinic response to wind in a small two-basin lake”, Aquatic Sciences, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 213-233, 2013.
• A. Guha and Lawrence, G. A., “Estuary Classification Revisited”, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 2013.
• A. Guha, Rahmani, M., and Lawrence, G. A., “Evolution of a barotropic shear layer into elliptical vortices”, Physical Review, vol. 87, no. 1, 2013.
• Y. Imam, Laval, B., Pieters, R., and Lawrence, G. A., “Strongly damped baroclinic response to wind in multi-basin reservoirs”, Limnology and Oceanography, 2013.
• Y. Imam, Laval, B., and Lawrence, G. A., “The baroclinic response to wind in a small two-basin lake”, Aquatic Sciences, 2012.
• J. R. Carpenter, Tedford, E. W., Heifetz, E., and Lawrence, G. A., “Instability in stratified shear flow: Review of a physical interpretation based on interacting waves”, Applied Mechanics Reviews, vol. 64, 2012.
• R. Pieters and Lawrence, G. A., “Plunging inflows and the summer photic zone in reservoirs”, Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, vol. 47, no. 3-4, pp. 268-275, 2012.
• S. Weinfurtner, Tedford, E. W., Penrice, M. C. J., Unruh, W. G., and Lawrence, G. A., “Measurement of stimulated Hawking emission in an analogue system”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 106, 2011.
• W. S., Tedford, E. W., Penrice, M. C. J., Unruh, W. G., and Lawrence, G. A., “Measurement of stimulated Hawking emission in an analogue system.”, Physical Review Letters, 2011.
• J. F. Atwater and Lawrence, G. A., “Regulatory, design and methodological impacts in determining tidal-in-stream power resource potential.”, Energy Policy, vol. 39(3), 2011.

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