Ben Hodges

Ben Hodges is a Professor in the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) Department at the University of Texas at Austin, holding the Marion E. Forsman Centennial Professorship in Engineering. He specializes in environmental and water resources engineering, with a focus on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), urban stormwater drainage modeling, and river dynamics. His research bridges hydraulics, geospatial analysis, and environmental fluid mechanics, addressing challenges like flood modeling, water distribution systems, and supersaturated dissolved gas management.

• Education:
• Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Stanford University (1997)
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, George Washington University (1991)
• B.S., Marine Engineering/Nautical Science, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (1984)
• Research Interests:
• Development of computational models (e.g., SPRNT, Frehd, SUNTANS)
• Oil spill transport modeling, saltwater intrusion, and continental river networks
• High-performance parallel algorithms and hydraulic simulation tools

His work emphasizes practical applications, such as designing stormwater systems and predicting environmental impacts like oil spill trajectories. He collaborates on projects with organizations like IBM Research Austin and the U.S. EPA, contributing to tools like the SWMM5+ and PTSNet simulators. Hodges advises a dynamic graduate research group (JETlab) and maintains active involvement in academic conferences and international collaborations.