About Us
Welcome to the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering at Tulane University. Our department focuses on the world’s river, deltaic and coastal systems using a combined science and engineering approach. Our goal is to grow our river science and engineering certificate program and develop unique undergraduate and graduate programs to provide students with the multidisciplinary knowledge needed to study and manage our Nation’s rivers and deltas.
In July 2017, Tulane’s School of Science and Engineering announced the founding of its newest academic department— the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering (RCSE). The department is envisioned to be a unique educational enterprise, unlike that at any other US university, that will focus on the world’s river, deltaic and coastal systems using the combined science and engineering approach pioneered by the School of Science and Engineering. By fusing civil, environmental, and coastal ocean engineering disciplines with elements of the geosciences and ecological sciences, the goal is to educate a new generation and new breed of scientists, engineers, planners and decision-makers that can address the complex, interdisciplinary problems in river-coastal systems associated with changing climate, sea level rise, and the human overprints of the natural landscape. These issues stand at the nexus of water management, food and energy production, sustainability of burgeoning coastal populations, and an emergent need for ecosystem restoration on a massive scale. This focus recognizes there are close linkages between these settings, such as the effects of engineered structures like river dams, on the health of deltas and the adjacent coast. Unique undergraduate and graduate degree programs will be developed in the next few years that reflect this holistic approach to understanding these systems where a large portion of the global population lives, and are critical economically and as a natural resource. RCSE is committed to playing an important role in workforce and economic development in our region. The new department also helps to build a needed critical mass of engineers and scientists at Tulane, in Louisiana, and in the Gulf region conducting research into these issues, both basic and applied, to provide solutions that increase the resilience and sustainability of river-coastal ecosystems, communities, and infrastructure. The interdisciplinary aspect of this new department’s educational and research mission will also draw heavily upon the deep expertise faculty and staff partners in other departments within the School of Science and Engineering and in Tulane’s other schools and faculty working on water-related issues.
As the Tulane School of Science and Engineering’s newest department, River-Coastal Science and Engineering (RCSE) is at an early phase of development, but its upward trajectory is marked by a number of key milestones to date:
July 2017 – The Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering is founded. Professor Mead Allison of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences is recruited to serve as the founding chair and organizer of the new department.
November 2017 – A blue-ribbon panel of 12 Tulane faculty and academicians, government, and corporate engineers and scientists from across the US meets for the first time to develop a strategic plan for RCSE.
January 2018 – A Cooperative Agreement is signed between Tulane (RCSE) with the US Army Corps of Engineers with the idea of developing joint educational initiatives. In Spring 2018 semester, the first class is taught of a joint RCSE-USACE Graduate Certificate in River Science and Engineering, stressing the “river” elements of the new department. This revolutionary “hybrid model” non-residence program is the first offered in the School of Science and Engineering.
June 2018 – The strategic plan for RCSE is submitted by the 12 member planning committee to Provost Forman.
November 2018 – The second full-time faculty member, Professor Ehab Meselhe, Ph.D., P.E., is hired. Professor Meselhe is a renowned numerical modeler of river-deltaic-coastal systems who has played a key role in the development of the Louisiana Master Plan for Coastal Restoration and Protection.
January 2019 – The first RCSE PhD student (Eric White) is accepted through the SSE Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program with the anticipation that he and future students will transition to an RCSE PhD degree program when it is stood up and accredited.
May 2019 – The joint RCSE-USACE Graduate Certificate in River Science and Engineering is officially accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
August 2020 – Professor Ehab Meselhe of RCSE is named the Nicholas J. Altiero Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Tulane.
December 2020 – First graduate certificate granted by RCSE in River Science and Engineering to Autumn Murray (M.S. 2021 and presently a civilian employee of the US Army Corps of Engineers).
August 2021 – Our third full-time faculty member, Professor John Sabo, join RCSE after a distinguished career at Arizona State University. Professor Sabo is a renowned river food web ecologist and has designed and implemented large scale field experiments to understand the role of aquatic-terrestrial energy flow on terrestrial food web dynamics as well as the dynamic effects of ground water on surface water food webs. Professor Sabo also serves as Director of the Bywater Institute at Tulane.
January 2022 – Two new tenure-track faculty members (our fourth and fifth) join RCSE. They are Associate Professor Annalisa Molini and Assistant Professor Soenke Dangendorf. Professor Molini joins us after a university career in the Middle East, is a water resources engineer specializing in hydroclimatology. Professor Dangendorf, who joins Tulane after previous university experience in Old Dominion University and in Germany, is a civil engineer who specializes in sea level analysis.
February 2022 – RCSE Professor Dangendorf receives a distinguished endowed position as David and Jane Flowerree Early Career Professor.
January 2023 – Total student enrollment in the RCSE Graduate Certificate in River Science and Engineering reaches a cumulative student enrollment of 323 individual class registrants, including 173 non-residential student/classes.
March 2023 – RCSE graduate programs (Ph.D., resident and non-resident M.S.) are officially accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Students will begin to pursue this program in the Fall 2023 semester. Existing graduate students in the department temporarily resident in other programs in SSE will transition into the RCSE degree programs by Summer 2023.
March 2023 – SSE and the Tulane Provost officially approve the RCSE Minor in Civil Engineering- Water Resources and Environmental (CEWR). Students will begin to pursue this program in the Fall 2023 semester.
