Research Associate Professor
University of Miami
Applied Marine Physics
fberon@rsmas.miami.edu

Francisco Beron-Vera's experience includes application of modern ideas from dynamical systems theory to the study of transport and mixing in geophysical flows. These modern ideas gave birth to the notion of Lagrangian Coherent Structure (LCS), which is at the heart of the oil spill problem. He has published more than fifteen papers on these topics. These papers include three papers dealing specifically with transport and mixing in the Gulf of Mexico, and one invited contribution to the Chaos journal Focus Issue on "Lagrangian coherent structures in fluid flows." He also coauthors with George Haller (McGill University) the recently developed geodesic theory of LCSs in two-dimensional flows. In a unified manner, the geodesic theory enables uncovering all the LCS types that compose the Lagrangian skeleton underlying fluid flow: hyperbolic LCSs (centerpieces of stretching and folding) and shear LCSs (e.g., jet-like transport barriers and eddy boundaries). Additionally, Beron-Vera has chaired the Lorentz Center workshop on "Coherent structures in dynamical systems" ( http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2011/445/info.php3?wsid=445), a unique event that brought together worldwide leaders in LCS theory.