Professor Leibovich joined the Cornell faculty after a year as a NATO postdoctoral fellow in mathematics at the University of London. At Cornell, he is a member of the graduate Fields of Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Atmospheric Sciences,Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and Mechanical Engineering. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Professor Leibovich is a member of the editorial board of Acta Mechanica. He previously served as general editor of the Cambridge University Press Monographs on Mechanics; as co-editor of Acta Mechanica; and as associate editor for the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, the Journal of Applied Mechanics, and the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics; and as a member of the editorial board of the Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics. He has been Chair of the U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Chair of the ASME Applied Mechanics Division, and Chair of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics.
My research focus has been on concentrated vortex flows, their transition via the phenomenon of vortex breakdown, and phenomenology underlying breakdown including hydrodynamic stability theory and nonlinear wave propagation. Another area of great interest to me has been the stability of the upper ocean and the vertical mixing of momentum, heat, and matter by Langmuir circulations, a motion caused by interaction of the surface waves and shear in the water column.
Professor Leibovich works on problems in fluid mechanics of highly vortical flows and geophysical flows. These flows typically involve processes of instability and transition, or wave propagation.
