Marco Giometto

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING MECHANICS

638 S.W. Mudd 
Mail Code 4709

Tel(212) 853-1799

Marco Giometto focuses on the fundamentals of turbulence, and its impact on the transport of mass, energy, and momentum in engineering and environmental systems.

Research Interests

Fluid Dynamics, Turbulence and Turbulence Modeling, Drainage and Canopy Flows, Non-Equilibrium Turbulent Boundary Layers

Insights from his research have implications in geophysics, engineering, biology, and energy technologies, where heat and mass transfer, evaporation, and skin friction often determine system performance or environmental impact.

He uses high-fidelity computational techniques (such as direct and large-eddy simulation) along with analytical tools to gain insight into complex flow systems and to develop reduced-order models for use in interdisciplinary applications. Topics of interest include boundary-layer turbulence, thermally-driven flows, turbulent transport in flows over and within complex surfaces (e.g. urban and vegetation canopies), and the response of turbulence to rapid distortions.

Dr. Giometto received his BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from the University of Padua (2010), and a joint PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Braunschweig TU University and the University of Florence (2014). In 2016 he earned a second PhD in mechanical engineering from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where he won the EDME Award for the best thesis in mechanical engineering. Before joining Columbia University in 2018, he held postdoctoral positions at the University of British Columbia and at the Center for Turbulence Research, which is jointly operated by Stanford University and NASA Ames.

Research Experience

  • Postdoctoral fellow, University of British Columbia (2016)
  • Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University (2017)

Professional Experience

  • Assistant professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics (2018 – present)
  • Amazon Visiting Academic, Amazon.com Inc., Amazon Prime Air (2020 — present) 
  • Senior Research Scientist, Amazon.com Inc., Amazon Prime Air (2018 — 2020)

Professional Affiliations

  • American Society of Civil Engineers
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • American Geophysical Union
  • American Meteorological Society
  • American Physical Society

Honors & Awards

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford University (2017)
  • EDME Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Mechanics at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2016)
  • Best Presentation Award, 9th International Conference on Urban Climate, 12th Symposium on the Urban Environment (2016)
  • Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union General Assembly Conference (2014)

Selected Publications

  • Lozano-Duran A., Giometto M. G., Park G. I., and Moin P. (2020) Non-equilibrium three-dimensional boundary layers at moderate Reynolds numbers. In J. Fluid Mech., 883, A20.
  • Momen M.y, Parlange M. B., Giometto M. G. (2021) Scrambling and reorientation of classical atmospheric boundary layer turbulence in hurricane winds. In Geophys. Res. Letters., 48, e2020GL091695.
  • Giacomini B., Giometto M. G. (2021) On the suitability of second-order accurate finite volume solvers for the simulation of atmospheric boundary layer flow. In Geophys. Mod. Dev., 14, 1409–1426.
  • Comola F., Giometto M. G., Parlange M. B., and Lehning M. (2019) Scale analysis of snowfall deposition over Gaussian hills using large eddy simulation and Lagrangian stochastic particle-tracking. In J. Geophys. Res., 124,7951–7974.
  • Schmid M. F., Lawrence G., and Parlange M. B., and Giometto M. G. (2019) Volume averaging for urban canopies. In Boundary-Layer Meteorol., 173, 349–372.
  • Giometto M. G., Katul G. G., Fang J., and Parlange M. B. (2017) Direct numerical simulation of slope flows up to Grashof number Gr = 211. In J. Fluid Mech., 829, 589–620.
  • Giometto M. G., Christen A., Egli P. E., Schmid M. F., Tooke R., Coops N. C., and Parlange M. B. (2017) Effects of urban trees on mean wind, turbulence and momentum exchange within and above a realistic urban canopy. In Adv. Water Resour., 106, 154–168.
  • Giometto M. G., Christen A., Meneveau C., Fang J., Krafczyk M., and Parlange M. B. (2016) Spatial characteristics of roughness sublayer mean flow and turbulence over a realistic urban surface. In Boundary-Layer Meteorol., 160, 425–452.