Bio

Dan Obenour is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. He is also a faculty fellow at the University’s Center for Geospatial Analytics. He received his BS, MS, and PhD from the Universities of Akron (2002), Texas at Austin (2004), and Michigan (2013), respectively. He also has several years of experience in environmental and water resources consulting, and he completed a postdoctoral position based at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in 2014.

Dr. Obenour’s research focuses on the development and application of probabilistic (e.g., Bayesian) models for predicting water-quality outcomes in aquatic systems under varying management and climate scenarios. This research includes interdisciplinary collaborations with fisheries biologists, physical oceanographers, research statisticians, and others. His models have been used in annual forecasts of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia for inland and coastal systems including Lake Erie, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the Neuse River Estuary. His research also encompasses data-driven pollutant fate and transport modeling in regional and national watersheds. In STEPS, his research has focused on modeling P flows and water quality impacts, often at a national scale.

Dr. Obenour’s teaching includes courses in Hydrology and Urban Water Systems, Surface Water Quality Modeling, Stochastic Methods, and Statistical Optimization of Environmental Models. He serves on multiple academic and professional committees, including the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP) Science and Technical Advisory Committee.

Area(s) of Expertise

Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering