Justin P. Cooke

Who am I?

I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024 advised by George Ilhwan Park and committee members Doug Jerolmack and Paulo Arratia.

I have since joined the Dynamics of Ocean Currents and Fronts Group as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, working with Dr. Kathleen Donohue and Dr. D. Randolph Watts.

Research Scope

My work bridges mechanical engineering and geophysics.

Turbulent motions transport energy, momentum, heat, and pollutants across a wide range of scales, with the surface bounding the flow modifying these fluxes. When that surface changes, such as where dense suburbs transition to city, ocean meets land, or in the presence of sea-ice, turbulent transport and fluxes change with it in ways equilibrium-based models and parameterizations fail to capture.

My research investigates these motions, and their downstream impacts on the environmental system; from sediment transport, air-sea fluxes, and predictability of ocean mesoscale eddies. My work addresses these problems using large-eddy simulation (LES), satellite derived and in-situ observations, and emerging machine learning methods.

Sep 2, 2026

Congratulations to Justin and co-authors on their publication's acceptance to the Journal of Physical Oceanography! Check it out below:

Jul 30, 2026

Justin presented his recently submitted work on deep, mesoscale eddy variability in the Gulf of Mexico at the Understanding Gulf Ocean Systems (UGOS) seminar!

May 29, 2026

Congratulations to Justin and collaborators for having their NASA EPSCoR Seed grant titled "Energy Fluxes and Velocity Kinematics of the Heterogeneous Polar Tempest" selected for funding!

Feb 27, 2026

Justin presented his work at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland!

Jan 30, 2026

After spending the last year as Coordinator, Justin opened the URI Graduate School of Oceanography's Physical Oceanography Seminar Series with his work on the impact of deep mesoscale eddies in forecasting the Gulf!

Streamwise velocity fluctuations from WMLES of a smooth-to-rough flow at Re = 1.6 million. Flow is from left to right.

Reynolds shear-stress soon after a smooth-to-rough transition. Results are from WMLES of an atmospheric boundary layer flow at Re = 1.6 million. Flow is from the top right to the bottom left.

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Who am I?

Research Scope