Rate My Professor Nina Stark

Stark's research centers on coastal and marine geotechnics, encompassing geotechnical storm and flood reconnaissance, sediment dynamics, structure-seabed interactions, coastal and riverine morphodynamics, beach trafficability, and mitigation strategies for extreme events. She has directed post-event reconnaissance missions for Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in 2017, Tropical Storm Melissa in 2019, western European floods in 2021, the Yellowstone Flood in 2022, and Hurricane Idalia in 2023, contributing to enhanced community resilience and understanding of coastal impacts. Her leadership extends to a $7.5 million Office of Naval Research project aimed at improving safety on hazardous tidal mudflats through advanced mapping and prediction. Stark has received the NSF CAREER Award and the ONR Young Investigator Award in 2018, and she led the SERDP Project of the Year in 2022. Notable publications include 'Geotechnical Properties from Portable Free Fall Penetrometer Measurements in Coastal Environments' (Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2023), 'Geotechnical Characterization of a Tidal Estuary Mudflat Using Portable Free-Fall Penetrometers' (Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2023), and 'Geotechnical Measurements for the Investigation and Assessment of Arctic Coastal Erosion—A Review and Outlook' (Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2022).