Dr. Kelly Kibler is an Associate Professor of Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She is faculty of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research and a Faculty Fellow of UCF’s Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity. Dr. Kibler obtained her Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering and M.Sc. in Forest Engineering from Oregon State University, and her B.Sc. In Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Kibler worked with the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) before joining UCF faculty, where she teaches Engineering Fluid Mechanics, Open Channel Hydraulics, Ecohydraulics and Water Policy.
Dr. Kibler’s Ecohydraulics Laboratory conducts interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of water resources engineering and aquatic ecology. Targeting coupled biological and physical variables in river and estuarine systems, the Kibler Ecohydraulics Lab advances basic scientific knowledge in flow-biota interaction and its influence to hydrodynamics and sediment transport. Dr. Kibler’s research findings are applied to the design of natural infrastructure used to protect communities from climatic hazards, such as erosion and flooding. The Ecohydraulics Lab’s study of environmental fluid mechanics within complex three-dimensional canopies improves understanding of flow resistance and sediment transport mechanisms within natural aquatic features, such as vegetation or shellfish reefs. Dr. Kibler’s research has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Estuaries Program, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Dr. Kibler is Chair of the River Restoration Technical Committee of the American Society for Civil Engineers, Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydrology, and active in committees of the American Geophysical Union.