Clarkson University Distinguished Research Professor in Hydraulic Engineering and Professor Emeritus Hung Tao Shen is this year’s recipient of the Bernard Michel Award of the Committee on River Ice and the Environment (CRIPE) of the Canadian Geophysical Union. The award is to honor eminent river ice engineers and scientists who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the advancement of river ice science and engineering in Canada. Shen received the award during the awards ceremony of the CRIPE workshop in Canmore, Alberta, on July 12.
Shen is an internationally recognized researcher primarily interested in cold regions hydraulics, oil and chemical spill modeling, and sediment transport. He introduced an analytical framework for studying river ice processes and developed the transport capacity theory for frazil ice jams/hanging dams and the theory on river ice dynamics and ice jams. His research group has developed comprehensive computer models for river processes, including thermal-ice and sediment transport, which today are a key cornerstone of the river ice field worldwide.
Shen earned his Ph.D. in mechanics and hydraulics from the University of Iowa. He joined the faculty of Clarkson as an assistant professor in 1976. He was named associate professor in 1981 and professor in 1983. He served as chair of the Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Science Program, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and as associate dean for research and graduate studies at the Coulter School of Engineering. He was named distinguished research professor in hydraulic engineering in 2014.
Shen has delivered many keynote presentations at professional conferences and conducted invited lectures and short courses in the United States and abroad. He directed 28 M.S., 24 Ph.D., and 18 post-doctoral and research associates. Shen also served as the editor of the Journal of Cold Regions Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineering.
His research has been supported by U.S. and international agencies and industries, like the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Transportation, International Joint Commission, World Bank, Army Research Office, New York Power Authority, and hydropower companies across Canada.
Shen has had extensive collaborations with international colleagues. He was a visiting faculty member at Lulea University, Iwate University, Hokkaido River Disaster Prevention Research Center, Nanyang Technological University, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Sichuan University, Inner Mongolia Agriculture University, and Gdansk University of Technology. He helped to establish Clarkson’s Semester Abroad agreements with Lulea University and Nanyang Technological University. Shen also co-directed the first NSF-funded East Asia Research Experience for Undergraduates program from 2000 to 2011, in which undergraduate students from Clarkson and other U.S. universities visited top Chinese universities for summer research in marine science and engineering.
Shen is a recipient of many prestigious national and international awards, including the Harold R. Peyton Cold Regions Engineering Award, the CAN-AM Civil Engineering Amity Award, and the Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award, all from the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE); the R. Larry Gerard Medal of the Canadian Geophysical Union Hydrology Section; and the Ice Research and Engineering Award of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR).
In addition, Clarkson awarded him the John W. Graham Jr. Faculty Research Award and the Albert Merrill Faculty Prize (twice). He is also an inaugural member of Clarkson’s Multi-Million Dollar Club for external research funding.