Mr Federico Maggi
Senior Lecturer
Director Research and Research Training
J05 - J05 Civil Engineering Building
The University of Sydney
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Centre for Wind, Waves and Water |
Biographical details
Federico Maggi joined the School of Civil Engineering in July 2009 as a Lecturer in Fluids and Environment.
He obtained his MSc in 1999 from the Polytechnique of Turin, Italy, with a thesis on nonlinear prediction of complex signals such as from deterministic chaos and turbulence. He received his PhD in 2005 from the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, with a comprehensive experimental and modelling work on turbulence-induced flocculation of suspended cohesive sediment.
In 2005, Federico moved to Duke University, North Carolina, USA, where he became involved in advanced mathematical modelling of soil fluid mechanics.
In 2006, Federico obtained an appointment at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, where his interests widened to soils physics and biogeochemistry. He joined since 2006 the Earth Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley USA, where he is currently guest scientist.
Research interests
Nowadays we are increasingly aware of our environment and its important role in our lives. Dr Federico Maggi investigates a range of aspects of the environment, from global issues to specific processes at the smallest scales.
"My work is about understanding how things work - how nature operates. That's it - very simple!
"I work on the kinds of things you don't hear about when you watch the news. For example, nobody talks about how molecules in the soil transform into other molecules, or about how water moves. These are some of the things I work on.
"Although I do plan my research, no-one can plan or anticipate a discovery - these just happen accidentally most of the time. You cannot decide to solve a problem - you can try to, but you don't know if you'll be able to. So you cannot plan your research outcomes exactly. It just goes where it goes, and it's up to you to understand whether it's going the right way or not.
"At the University of Sydney I have complete, full and total freedom in terms of my research. None of the ideas or projects I work on are imposed on me - it's ultimately up to me to put my time and energy into the research challenges I really believe in. And the great thing is that I love what I do."
Teaching and supervision
CIVL3614 - Hydrology
CIVL5503 - Foundations of Hydrology
CIVL5665 - Advanced Water Resources Engineering
Current projects
- Biological flocculation of suspended cohesive sediment: a new, innovative facility built in the Fluids Lab is used to carry out optical observations of the interaction between suspended sediment and micro-organisms. The experimental data are used in conjuction with a modified population balance equation based on the Smoluchowski equation.
- The theory of kinetic isotopologue and isotopomer speciation and fractionation: a new theory of biochemical isotope fractionation has allowed us to open new perspectives on elemental exploitation, movement, and release in soil microbial communities. Integration of this approach in mechanistic models of soil biogeochemistry is being carried out.
- Global soil change: the change in food consumption patterns globally occurred in the past 50 years has radically changed the agriculture and farming practices, causing enormous consequences on soil quality (e.g., carbon and biodiversity loss, deforestation, desertification, etc.). Minimalistic and mechanistic models are carried out to assess the rate of soil change at field, watershed and continental scales.
- Radiocarbon modelling: radioactive carbon produced during nuclear bomb tests in the sixties allow to establish the turnover time of carbon stored in soils. A new modelling framework for non-steady-state system is being developed to assess carbon storage and release rate to the atmosphere cause by perturbations such as climate change, agriculture, invasive species, etc.
Associations
- Reviewer for Journal of Hydrology, Water Resources Research, Water Research, Continental Shelf Research.
- Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Awards and honours
- Early Career Research, The University of Sydney, 2009
- Lagrange Fellowship, The ISI Foundation, 2010
- Major Equipment Scheme, The University of Sydney, 2011
Selected publications
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