Dr. James Kaihatu, associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named a Center for Teaching Excellence Curriculum Fellow. Kaihatu was selected in recognition of his exceptional leadership in the area of curricular redesign and in appreciation of the time and effort associated with his work on the process.
Kaihatu joined the department in 2006 after 11 years as a research oceanographer at the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center. He also worked at the Coastal Engineering Research Center, U.S. Army Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He previously held an adjunct appointment in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. He received his doctorate from the University of Delaware, Master of Science from the University of California — Berkeley, and Bachelor of Science from California State Polytechnic University, all in civil engineering.
He is an associate editor of two journals: the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering; and the Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy. He has worked as a co-editor on two forthcoming books on coastal and ocean engineering. He was awarded the Truman C. Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award in 2013.
His research interests involve the theory and numerical modeling of ocean surface wave generation and propagation, including continental shelf-scale wave transformation, nonlinear wave-wave interaction, wave breaking and nearshore circulation, and the effects of cohesive bottom sediments and coastal vegetation on waves.