Nikolaos D. Katopodes, Ph.D., professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, retired from active faculty status on June 30, 2020.

Professor Katopodes received his B.S. (1972) degree from Aristotle University, Greece and his B.S. (1976), M.S. (1974), and Ph.D. (1977) degrees from the University of California, Davis. He joined the University of Michigan faculty as assistant professor in 1981, and was promoted to associate professor in 1987, and professor in 1996. He chaired the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2001-06. Professor Katopodes also held visiting positions at Aristotle University, Chuo University, the University of Hanover, the University of Karlsruhe, and the Delft Hydraulics Laboratory. He has also served as a consultant to several federal and state agencies, over a dozen foreign governments, and several corporations.

Professor Katopodes’ research covered a wide range of topics varying from environmental fluid mechanics to surface hydrology, to wave mechanics and industrial multi-phase flows. He developed computer models for applications ranging from micro-channel flow to rivers and estuaries. His work addressed both analysis and real-time control of sudden releases in surface- water systems, and combines detection, identification, and simulation, leading to mitigation of contaminants and catastrophic waves. Professor Katopodes published three books titled Free- Surface Flow: Environmental Fluid Mechanics (2018), Free-Surface Flow: Shallow-Water Waves (2018), and Free-Surface Flow: Computational Methods (2018) that have become the reference of choice at many universities. During his tenure at the University of Michigan, Professor Katopodes chaired or co-chaired 28 Ph.D. student dissertation committees. His research resulted in over 200 publications and several software packages that are used worldwide for the analysis and control of free-surface flows. For his teaching, research, and service, he has received many national and international awards, including the Karl Emil Hilgard Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (1990), the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan (2010), and an honorary doctorate from the University of Thessaly, Greece (2013). He presented seminars in over 15 countries and has delivered over 25 keynote lectures at national and international conferences. He was a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The Regents now salute this distinguished faculty member by naming Nikolaos D. Katopodes, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering.