Associate Professor of Engineering

Areas of Interest: Land-atmosphere interactions, Hydrometeorology, Ecohydrology, Remote sensing, Fluid dynamics, Numerical and statistical modeling

Link to CV

Christopher is an eco-hydrologist that researches how land surface heterogeneity affects the coupling between vegetation and the atmosphere. The goal of his research is to better define the response of vegetation to climatic variability, especially during droughts and future climate change. To do this research, he uses a combination of a simple empirical model, which he developed in his PhD, and land surface models to explore how uncertainty and variability in roots, soil, and rock affect vegetation’s access to water, and subsequently their growth and health.

Education:

Ph.D. UC Santa Barbara, 2023

M.E.S.M. UC Santa Barbara, 2015

B.A. Environmental Studies, CU Boulder 2012

My academic interests are in environmental modeling, dynamical systems, applied mathematics, and STEM education. I taught high school in the Lyceum Academy of New Hanover High School in Wilmington, NC for six years before returning to graduate school. Outside of work, I like exploring Winston-Salem with my wife and son, spending time at the beach, and playing golf. 

Personal Website

I am an Ecuadorian environmental engineer who graduated from Escuela Politécnica Nacional in 2021. My main interests are ecosystem monitoring, remote sensing, hydrology modeling, and meteorology. I am currently part of the CUAHSI community and the International Water Association. I was SDG Coordinator at SDSN Youth Andes, Research Assistant at Escuela Politécnica Nacional, and Research Assistant at the University of Minnesota. These experiences drove me to promote STEM research and open science. I am glad to meet my goals as part of the Environmental Dynamics Lab team.

Physics ('24)

Engineering ('26)

Engineering ('24)

Environmental Science ('25)

Engineering ('26)

I'm an environmental scientist and, specifically, an ecohydrologist. I'm interested in the role of vegetation in coupling the fluxes of water and carbon between land and atmosphere. My over-arching research objective is to connect scientific advances spanning several scales. For example, how does the anatomy of plant xylem drive its behavior to droughts? I'm currently a postdoc studying wildfire spread and the vegetation dynamics pre- and post-fire. As an engineer by training, I'm interested in applying tools from physics and engineering to my environmental science questions. Such tools are graph theory, percolation theory, and the calculus of variation.

I graduated with a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Duke University in 2020 and a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut in 2016.

https://www.assaadmrad.com/

Engineering ('23)

Engineering ('23)

Physics ('22)

Engineering ('22)

Mechanical Engineering ('21)

Polytechnical University of Catalonia, Barcelona

Engineering ('21)

Engineering ('22)

Engineering ('21)

Biology ('21)

Economics ('22)