Steve Wereley Explained

Steve Wereley^[1] is a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.^[2] His areas of research include Micro- and Nanofluidics, Particle Image Velocimetry, Opto-microfluidics and bio-MEMS. He is the co-inventor of micro-PIV.^[3]

Education

In 1990, Wereley completed his undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and physics at Lawrence University. Wereley earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University in 1992 and 1997, respectively. He spent two years working with Carl Meinhart at the University of California Santa Barbara, specializing in microfluidic diagnostic techniques.

Career

In 1999, Wereley became an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. In 2005, Wereley was promoted to associate professor and in 2010 to professor.

Deepwater Horizon

Wereley played an important role in assessing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the summer of 2010. On May 13, 2010, he was among the first scientists to report that the actual flow rate of oil out of the well was considerably higher than the official estimate at the time.^{[4] [5] [6]} After the disaster the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling found that the "...Wereley estimates (and at least some of BP‘s internal estimates) proved to be significantly more accurate than the initial official estimates."^[7] Wereley was invited to brief the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment about his findings.^[8] He was also asked to join the Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG), a group of scientists assembled by the Department of the Interior to address the flow rate issue.^[9] The FRTG issued a final peer-reviewed report on July 21, 2010,^[10] and contributed to the official US government oil flow rate estimate announced on August 2, 2010.^[11] In October 2010 Wereley was awarded the United States Geological Survey Director's Award for his work on the FRTG team.^[12]

Publications

Books

• N.T. Nguyen and S.T. Wereley, Fundamentals and Applications of Microfluidics, Artech House, Boston, (First edition, 2002; second edition, 2006).
• M. Raffel, C. Willert, S.T. Wereley, J. Kompenhans, Particle Image Velocimetry: A Practical Guide, Springer, New York (2007).

Journal articles

• A. Kumar, S.J. Williams, H.S. Chuang, N.G. Green and S.T. Wereley, "Hybrid opto-electric manipulation in microfluidics—opportunities and challenges", Lab on a Chip (2011). cover article
• Y.H. Kim, C. Cierpka and S.T. Wereley, "Flow field around a vibrating cantilever: coherent structure education by continuous wavelet transform and proper orthogonal decomposition," J. Fluid Mech., Vol. 669, pp. 584–606. (2011).
• S.T. Wereley and C.D. Meinhart, "Recent Advances in Micro Particle Image Velocimetry," Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 42 (2010).
• C.D. Meinhart, S.T. Wereley, and J.G. Santiago, "PIV Measurements of a Microchannel Flow," Exp. Fluids, Vol. 27, No. 5, 414-419, (1999).
• J.G. Santiago, S.T. Wereley, C.D. Meinhart, D. Beebee, and R.J. Adrian, "A particle image velocimetry system for microfluidics," Exp. Fluids, Vol. 25, No. 4, 316-319, (1998).
• S.T. Wereley and R.M. Lueptow, "Spatio-temporal character of nonwavy and wavy Taylor Couette flow," J. Fluid Mech. Vol. 364, 59-80, (1998).

External links

• Steve Wereley's Purdue web page
• Wereley's Purdue microfluidics channel
• Biography

Notes and References

1. Web site: Professor Steve Wereley. Purdue University. 22 February 2012.
2. Web site: Purdue University School of Mechanical Engineering web page.
3. Web site: Micron resolution particle image velocimeter. United States Patent Office. 22 February 2012.
4. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126975907 Scientist: BP's Oil Spill Estimates Improbable, NPR, May 20, 2010
5. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59381/title/BP%E2%80%99s_estimate_of_spill_rate_may_be_fantasy,_engineer_argues BP’s estimate of spill rate is way low, engineer suggests, Science News, May 19, 2012
6. Web site: Harris. Richard. Oil Flow May Be much Worse Than Original Estimate. National Public Radio.
7. Web site: THE AMOUNT AND FATE OF THE OIL. National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. 27 February 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111014093037/http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Updated%20Amount%20and%20Fate%20of%20the%20Oil%20Working%20Paper.pdf. 14 October 2011.
8. Web site: Committee on Energy and Commerce web site.
9. Web site: Department of the Interior Flow Rate Technical Group member bios.
10. Web site: Flow Rate Technical Group Plume Team Final Report. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111018134029/http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/loader.cfm?csModule=security%2Fgetfile&PageID=68011. 2011-10-18.
11. Web site: Press release. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120112154457/http://www.restorethegulf.gov/release/2010/08/02/us-scientific-teams-refine-estimates-oil-flow-bps-well-prior-capping. 2012-01-12.
12. Web site: Purdue University Press Release.