Rate My Professor Marwan Katurji

Marwan Katurji is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Canterbury, where he is affiliated with the Center for Atmospheric Research. He received his PhD from the University of Canterbury. Prior to his doctoral studies, his undergraduate and graduate academic background was in mechanical engineering at the American University of Beirut, with core training in thermal and fluid sciences. Katurji specialises in atmospheric boundary-layer science, a branch of meteorology focused on understanding interactions between the lower atmosphere and Earth’s surfaces. His research interests centre on measuring, modelling, simulating and analysing surface-atmospheric energy and moisture fluxes that influence microclimates. He has undertaken numerous research projects in New Zealand, the United States and Antarctica, contributing peer-reviewed publications to the fields of numerical weather and climate modelling, agricultural and forest meteorology, renewable wind energy and mountain meteorology.

In 2017, Katurji was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand for his research programme entitled 'The invisible realm of atmospheric coherent turbulent structures: Resolving their dynamics and interaction with Earth's surface'. The work addresses challenges in representing turbulence and surface-atmosphere thermodynamic fluxes in weather and climate models through new measurement techniques, field experiments and theoretical formulations. He employs multidisciplinary approaches combining engineering and science to investigate coherent turbulent structures and their impacts on surface conditions.