UKZN alumnus Miss Katelyn Ann Johnson recently joined staff in the discipline of Civil Engineering. Previously with Eyethu Engineers in Durban, Johnson specialises in hydrology and water engineering and is currently a PhD candidate in Engineering Hydrology at the Centre for Water Resources Research based within Civil Engineering at UKZN.
Describing her research, Johnson said: ‘I am working in an interdisciplinary space that merges engineering hydrology, hydrometeorology and climate change. My research focuses on estimating extreme rainfall events required for the design of hydraulic structures, and developing methods to account for non-stationary climate data in these estimates.’
Johnson is a lecturer in Civil Engineering and a member of the New Generation of Academics Programme.
Dr Justin Pringle, also a UKZN alumnus, will work in the field of environmental fluid mechanics within the Civil Engineering discipline.
Pringle, previously employed by the eThekwini Municipality in the Coastal, Stormwater and Catchment Management, Engineering Unit – will be lecturing as well as actively pursuing research and development within environmental fluid dynamics.
Pringle’s research includes:
- Ocean mixing – microstructure turbulence in stratified fluids and measurements with the aim being to improve sub-grid scale parameterisation in global climate models
- Wave generated pumping in flexible tubes to develop engineering design solutions to complex flows in flexible tubes
- Coastal vulnerability – develop new design methods aimed at mitigating effects of coastal vulnerability within the context of climate change
Words: Prashina Budree
Photographs supplied by: Katelyn Ann Johnson and Justin Pringle