Professor Vladimir Nikora

2006 - Present

Professor, Sixth Century Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Leader of the Fluid Mechanics Research Group (2006-2024), School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen

1995 - 2006

Principal Scientist and Manager of the Hydrodynamics Group (2001-2006), Senior Scientist (1995-2001), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Christchurch, New Zealand

1985 - 1995

Deputy Director (Research, 1988-1995), Head of the Department of Channel Processes (1987-1995), Senior Scientist (1985-1987), Institute of Geophysics and Geology, Academy of Sciences, Republic of Moldova

1980 - 1985

Senior Scientist (1984-1985), Scientist (1983-1984), Research Assistant (1980-1983), Odessa Hydrometeorological Institute, Ukraine

• Member of the Council of the International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and  Research (IAHR), 2017-2023
• Secretary/Chair/Past-Chair/Member of the IAHR Committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation, 2001-2015.
• Vice-Chair (2017-2021), Chair (2021-23), and Past Chair (since 2023) of the IAHR Committee on Fluid Mechanics.
• Editor, IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research, 2011-2016.
• Advisory Editor, IAHR Journal of Ecohydraulics, since 2016.
• Associate Editor, IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research, since 2017.
• Associate Editor, Water Resources Research (AGU), 2006-2011.
• Associate Editor, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (ASCE), 2007-2011.
• Member of Editorial Board, Acta Geophysica (Springer), since 2009.
• Guest Editor, Acta Geophysica (Springer), 2006-2008.
• Member of EPSRC Peer Review College.
• PhD and Habilitation Committees: UWA/Perth (Australia); Paris-Saclay, INRAE-Lyon (France), Karlsruhe/KIT, Dresden/TUD (Germany); IIT-Kharagpur (India); Torino, Trento (Italy);  TU/Delft, Twente (the Netherlands); Auckland, Canterbury (New Zealand), NTNU/Trondheim (Norway); ETH/Zurich (Switzerland);  Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Herriot-Watt, Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick (UK).
• Member of International and Organising Committees for a number of International Conferences and Workshops in water engineering, hydraulics, and fluid mechanics.
• Reviewer for:

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Leverhulme Trust, and the Royal Society London, UK; NSF, USA; Marie Curie programmes; DFG, Germany; NSERC and Canada Research Chairs Programme, Canada; National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Organisations, Italy; Israel Science Foundation; National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research, Chile; Hong Kong Research Grants Council; and for over 20 major international journals in Hydraulics, Fluid Mechanics, Hydrology, Physics, Earth Sciences, and Ecology.

My recent and current research interests comprise various topics of Environmental Fluid Mechanics with particular focus on:

• Turbulence in open-channels, rivers, estuaries, and coastal areas
• Benthic boundary layers, water-sediment interfaces, and sediment transport (cohesive/non-cohesive), including sand wave dynamics, turbulence-sediment interactions, erosion, re-suspension, flocculation, and bed particle dispersion
• Flow-biota interactions and transport processes (periphyton, moss, mussels, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish)
• Hydraulic resistance and channel stability in gravel-bed and sand-bed rivers
• Overland flow hydrodynamics and soil erosion
• Hydraulic instrumentation and measurement techniques
• Channel networks, meandering and braided channels, granular surfaces, and Mars topography

Current

• INRAE (Lyon, France):  hydrodynamics of shallow flows
• Leibnitz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology (Germany): open-channel turbulence and flow-biota interactions
• University College London (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
• University of Southampton (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
• University of Glasgow (UK): secondary currents in wall-bounded flows (EPSRC)
• National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA, New Zealand):  flow-biota interactions, sediment transport, turbulence
• Tsinghua University (China): open-channel flow, turbulence, flow-biota interactions
• Hohai University (China): open-channel flow turbulence, river confluences 
• Wuhan University (China): sediment transport, channel dynamics
• Sichuan University (China): braided rivers, channel dynamics
• Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, Poland):  sediment transport, river turbulence, and dispersion
• Polytechnic University of Turin (Torino, Italy): open-channel turbulence

Past

• CNRS and University Claude Bernard (Lyon, France):  flow-biota interactions
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany):  rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, turbulence, and sediment transport
• University of Braunschweig (Germany):  rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics,  and sediment transport
• University of Dresden (Germany): rough-bed flow hydrodynamics, turbulence, and sediment transport
• Technical University of Milano (Italy):  sediment transport and turbulence
• University of Padova (Italy): sediment transport and turbulence