Title:  Research in the Crimaldi Lab:  Past, Current, & Future Directions

Abstract:  In this talk I will give an overview of research themes, projects, and techniques used by 
students and postdocs in the Crimaldi Lab.  The core of our research program is focussed on how complex and 
turbulent fluids transport various ecologically and biologically relevant entities.  We use a variety of 
numerical and experimental approaches across a large range of spatial scales.  Projects to be discussed 
include (1) the role of structure flow on the aggregation of initially distant scalars such as marine 
invertebrate egg and sperm, (2) turbulent generation of patchiness in live distributions of phytoplankton 
populations, (3) hydrodynamics of siphon flows in benthic filter-feeding organisms, and (4) investigations 
of chaotic plume stirring protocols in porous media.  I will save the final portion of the talk to give a 
brief overview of an exciting new research project funded as part of the White House BRAIN Initiative. This 
is a highly interdisciplinary project involving seven research teams and six institutions.  The aim of the 
project is to understand from both phenomenological and mechanistic perspectives how the brain encodes 
spatiotemporal information in turbulent odor plumes for use in performing complex navigational tasks.  The 
effort weaves together a range of emerging experimental and computational technologies spanning the fields 
of fluid dynamics, animal behavior, and neuroscience.