Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow
Sara Oliveira Santos is a research scientist focused on ecological and environmental fluid mechanics. During her Ph.D. at Brown University, she used shrimp as a model organism to design bio-inspired underwater robots for ocean exploration on Earth and Ocean Worlds. She conducted velocimetry experiments with live shrimp and robotic counterparts to investigate the fluid mechanics of shrimp swimming. For example, she showed how shrimp generate lift through leading-edge vortices while swimming forward, a mechanism shared by small flying insects. At the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, Sara is working on sediment transport on Earth and in reduced-gravity environments like those found on Europa and Enceladus. She is also examining the ecology of mussel and oyster reefs through remote sensing data and laboratory experiments on smaller-scale processes. Her broad interest in fluid mechanics has led her to work on various topics, including human swimming, breastfeeding, and the scaling relationships of swimming organisms.
Interests
Bio-inspired robotics, ecological and experimental fluid mechanics, ocean world exploration.
Academics
Ph.D. in Engineering, Fluids and Thermal Sciences, Brown University
M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, The University of Akron