Geoff R. Spedding, Research Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
U. So. California
Tel: (213) 740-7182
geoff@ostrich.usc.edu

Education:

Ph.D. (1981), Zoology (with Civil Engineering), on the Aerodynamic Analysis of Animal Flight. University of Bristol, England
B.Sc. (1978, Hons 1st Class), Zoology, University of Bristol, England

Professional experience:

1992 - Stratified turbulence work transitions to stratified wakes research at request of ONR. Turns out to be interesting after all.
1991 - Review paper on Animal Flight Aerodynamics leads back to various projects in that discipline.
1986 - Surrounded (still) by GFD research, began work on stratified rotating flows over obstacles, and on stratified turbulence.
1984 - Research on strongly-separated flows for control of sup-maneouverable aircraft.
1981 - Came to USC to work on mechanical models of insect wings as a postdoc with Tony Maxworthy.

Research Interests:

1. Geophysical fluid dynamics: experimental investigations of fluid flows affected by background variations in density and/or by planetary rotation.

2. Quantitative imaging and data analysis: Particle-based tracking methods including Correlation Imaging Velocimetry (CIV). Also, spline interpolation methods and two-dimensional continuous wavelet transforms.

3. Unsteady aerodynamics and control of natural flight: Includes animal and ornithopter flight.