Ian M. Knack, Ph.D., P.E.

Background

Dr. Ian Knack holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, an M.S. in Civil Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with an emphasis on hydraulics and hydrology. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. His Ph.D. research focused on field, laboratory, and numerical modeling studies of river dynamics processes, specifically hydraulics under the influence of surface ice, sediment transport in both ice-influenced and open water conditions, ice breakup, and ice jam formation and flooding. Dr. Knack also completed post-doctoral training in riparian systems analysis.

Dr. Knack was a professor at Clarkson University for 7 years where he extended his research to the areas of wintertime fish habitat quality modeling, the transport and accumulation of large woody material, and the use of limited data sets to calibrate and validate hydrologic and hydraulic models. He has also conducted several low head dam removal assessments. He has published various peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics.

Additionally, Dr. Knack has completed a number of studies on the cause of severe ice jam flooding events and methods for reducing the risk to neighboring communities and hydropower operations. His work included conference presentations and peer-reviewed work on data analysis techniques and numerical modeling tools he has developed to analyze these events.