Researcher Earns NSF Career Award

Dr. Jie Yu, a Sea Grant researcher whose work has focused on the formation of deadly rip currents, won a prestigious Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). She will receive $567,232 over five years for her project, “CAREER: Multi-scale Interactions of Waves, Currents and Morphology with Applications to Rip Currents.” The award, one of the NSF’s highest honors for young science and engineering faculty, is intended to advance their research and careers.

Yu’s research is aimed at improving forecasts of rip currents to make beaches safer. The new NSF project will expand NC State’s graduate program and include outreach for K-12 education about coastal processes. Sea Grant and the weather service, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the NC State Science House, will continue to help share results with key audiences.