The Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory returned on Jan. 12, 2017, at 7 p.m. with the program titled “Why are the Matanzas Inlet and adjacent coastline so dynamic?”. University of Florida Civil and Coastal Engineering Department Assistant Professor Maitane Olabarrieta talked about the current and future impact of Hurricane Matthew on the Matanzas Inlet. Olabarrieta also talked about how the water flow and quality of the surrounding waterway were affected by the recent hurricane. This free lecture was presented at Lohman Auditorium located at 9505 Ocean Shore Blvd., on the Whitney Laboratory campus.
Olabarrieta received her doctorate in marine science and technology from the University of Cantabria in Spain in 2006. Her research interests cover diverse oceanographic and long-term problems that affect our coasts. By combining both local and remote measurement analysis and numerical modeling techniques, she studies processes that include a wide variety of locations and time periods, such as atmosphere and ocean momentum exchange processes during hurricanes and extreme storms, short-term estuarine processes, and the long-term evolution of tidal networks and inlets. She has published 41 peer-reviewed journal papers and seven in peer-reviewed conference proceedings.