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Featured Faculty: Sergei Katsev
Interests: Hydrodynamics and geochemistry of lakes, sediment-water nutrient exchanges, reaction-transport modeling, stratified tropical lakes, lakes as test tubes of modern and ancient oceans
Courses Taught: PHYS2011 General Physics I, PHYS2022 Classical Physics, PHYS5053 Data analysis methods in Physics
Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~skatsev
Sergei Katsev joined UMD in 2007, after postdoctoral work at McGill University and the Swiss Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG). He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Ottawa where he studied self-organization in non-linear systems and M.Sc. from the Belarus State University where he specialized in Solid State Physics.
Sediments from Lake Superior
show prominent iron-rich layers
Dr. Katsev’s research focuses on quantifying the transformations of chemicals as they are being transported through the water column and sediments of lakes and participate in a complex network of chemical reactions. He developed a numerical reaction-transport model, LSSE-Mega, which allows simulating the processes in aquatic sediments. For the past several years, he has been working on modeling and experimental characterization of sediment geochemistry in Lake Superior.
Dr. Katsev is also interested in the coupling between the hydrodynamic mixing and geochemical and microbiological cycles in permanently stratified tropical lakes. He began this work on the Indonesian Lake Matano, whose unique water chemistry makes it the best modern analogue for the ancient Archean Ocean, and has recently expanded his research to two African Great Lakes: Kivu and Malawi. His research is supported by several NSF grants and internal funding from the University of Minnesota.