Although Professor Robert ‘Tony’ Dalrymple has only been with the Johns Hopkins University Department of Civil Engineering for a few years, his knowledge of coastal engineering has had a great impact on the program and he will be sorely missed after he retires on June 30, 2016.
His career has been shaped by a wide variety of interests within the field of coastal engineering including the modeling of water waves and their impact on shorelines, structures, and the ocean bottom as well as water-related natural hazards. His curiosity of and knowledge in these areas help him with projects such as creating theories for rip current generation, tsunami propagation modeling, and prediction of future sea level rise.
Dalrymple began his academic career at the University of Florida in 1968 within the Department of Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering. He then moved to the University of Delaware, where he filled a variety of positions during his 29-year career including Assistant Dean for the College of Engineering, Edward C. Davis Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Adjunct Professor for the College of Marine Studies. While at the University of Delaware, he founded the Center for Applied Coastal Research, which he served as Director until 2001. He earned the status of Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering from the university in 2004.
Dalrymple first arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1999 as a Visiting Professor and returned in 2002 as the Department Chairman and filled that role until 2004. He has been the Willard & Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil Engineering since 2002 and will retire in that position. Since at Johns Hopkins, he has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (2006), been named a Fellow for the Coasts, Oceans, Ports & Rivers Institute (ASCE) (2010), Diplomate in Coastal Engineering, Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port & Navigation Engineers, been named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (2011), and became an Académico Correspondiente of the Real Academia de Ingeniería (Spain) (2013).
He was a member of the Coastal Engineering Research Board of the Corps of Engineers (1989-1993), and been chair of ASCE’s Coastal Engineering Research Council (2004-2014, member from 1992) and the National Research Council’s Marine Board (2004-2010). He has served on seven National Research Council study committees related to coastal issues, chairing two. Additionally, he participated in post-disaster trips for the American Society of Civil Engineers to Thailand after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He has discussed his area of expertise with media outlets such as CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and Engineering Times.
His colleagues and friends in the Department of Civil Engineering wish him well as he waves farewell and moves forward with this next phase of his life.