Spotlight on Dr David McGovern

This week the spotlight is on Dr David McGovern, Research Associate, UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I am a post-doctoral research associate in the UCL Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering. I am working on several projects within the EPICentre research group, which focus on the physical modelling of tsunami and their interaction with coastlines, sea defences and buildings.

This involves extensive use of a unique tsunami generator based at HR Wallingford, near Oxford. This generator is situated at one end of a long wave flume (think of a log flume at a theme park). It is a big steel pressure vessel with an opening at the base to let water move between it and the flume.

It works by generating long, scaled tsunami waves by using large air pumps to control the water level inside the generator via decreasing and increasing the internal air pressure - the same way you suck a drink through a straw; put your finger over the straw and hold the liquid in the straw, let go and the liquid falls back down into the glass.

At the other end of the flume we have a beach with a variety of instrumented model sea defences, buildings and slopes. Here we take data regarding the force and pressure from tsunami as they hit these structures, as well as understanding how tsunami behave as they inundate coastal regions. Further, we can also gain valuable data about the offshore behaviour of tsunami with measurements further away from the beach.

The aim is to improve understanding, risk assessment and mitigation, engineering design codes, publications and ultimately save lives and property.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I've been at UCL for a year now. Previously I worked at the National University of Singapore as a post-doc Fellow. I was studying the interaction of wind waves with arctic sea ice, obviously in the laboratory too - the only real ice in Singapore is in the Gin Slings!

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I'm generally proud of publications - it's a privilege to contribute to human knowledge and the peer review process rightly means that contribution is challenging and genuine.

Tell us about a project you are working on now that is top of your to-do list.

At this moment I am onsite at HR Wallingford setting up the variety of equipment we have for the tests - it's hands on project management and problem solving. Also, fishing frogs out of the flume.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Absolute favourites, if I had to choose as in Desert Island Disks, would be:

Album - Achtung Baby, U2

Film - The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Oh, and The Hobbit too please (extended editions, of course).

Novel - I don't read novels, but I love history and cosmology, so something like The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking, or an Anthony Beevor WW2 book.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

What do you call a deer with no eyes? No Idea!

What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs? Still no idea!

The third one of this series is post-watershed… ask me if you see me!

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi (met her once), The Edge, Data, a stuffed fox dressed in a top hat, and my future wife - whoever she may be!

What advice would you give your younger self?

Run!

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I used to be in a rock band and we had a song played on BBC Radio 6 Music.

What is your favourite place?

The tea plantations in Ella, Sri Lanka is up there.