易胜博官网 alumna will focus on coastal engineering

Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Woman with long brown hair, blue shirt and red life vest stands next to a tank of water while holding a long black cylinder.

Meagan Wengrove ('18G) has shaped听a career out of sand and sediment movement.听

If you鈥檝e ever taken a stroll along the sandy portions of the Seacoast, you鈥檒l know just how dynamic coastal systems can be 鈥 the sand is constantly moving around, scoured out in some places and pushed back up in others, making it an outdoor laboratory for studying sand and sediment transport. Meagan Wengrove '10听'18G听is making a career out of this topic, taking what she鈥檚 learned in 易胜博官网听and heading off to the West Coast for the next step in her life.

This fall, Wengrove will start as an assistant professor of with a focus on coastal engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis. She鈥檚 diving right into her teaching and research duties, the latter of which will focus on both the evolution of and feedback between small to medium-scale coastal morphology and the use of engineered nature-based coastal buffers, such as marshes and dunes, as coastal protection strategies. It鈥檚 a whole new coast for her to learn about, but Wengrove is confident that the skills and knowledge base she picked up here at 易胜博官网 will help her settle in just fine.

Woman on research vessel wears a hardhat and smiles while holding a seastar.
Meagan Wengrove has a fascination with both engineering and the aquatic world.

From her early undergraduate days at 易胜博官网, Wengrove was excited to pair civil engineering with fluid dynamics 鈥 she鈥檚 got a fascination with water that drives much of her scientific inquiry. She worked with Diane Foster, 易胜博官网 associate professor of mechanical engineering, for her Master of Science to learn about nutrient diffusion through sediments in Great Bay. After spending a year in the Netherlands on a Fulbright Scholarship, Wengrove returned to 易胜博官网 to work on her Ph.D. research that focused on the impact of sand ripples on large-scale sand movement and transport.听听

Along the way, Wengrove鈥檚 student career evolved at the same time the 听(SMSOE) grew into its current interdisciplinary form. From the school鈥檚 Graduate Research Conference to new lab spaces and research vessels, the SMSOE now offers plentiful opportunities for undergrads, graduate students听and faculty who want to dig in and enhance their experience 鈥 and improve their resumes along the way. 听

鈥淭he Marine School has grown a lot in recent years, and it鈥檚 cool to see everyone working together more closely,鈥 Wengrove says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a more cohesive unit now, and that makes 易胜博官网 stronger, too. There are so many people working on different projects on the water and it鈥檚 really easy to collaborate with them and to share resources,鈥 she adds. 听

Wengrove wants to encourage students who are interested in engineering to consider researching ocean-related topics at 易胜博官网 and to jump in and explore what the 易胜博官网 Marine School has to offer.

听鈥淭he 易胜博官网 Marine School has new lab spaces, research boats, indoor tow- and test- tanks, and accessible and excited faculty and students. Plus the Great Bay and the Atlantic Ocean are in our back yard 鈥 there鈥檚 a lot right here,鈥 she says.

See where a career in can take you.