Dr Robert Niven
Senior Lecturer
BSc(Hons), PhD UNSW
Building 20 Room 129
Telephone: (+61) 2 626 88330
Fax: (+61) 2 626 88581
Email: r.niven@adfa.edu.au
Research Experience
- Research Interests include: Thermodynamics, information theory and statistical mechanics applied to scientific, engineering and human systems
- The combinatorial basis of entropy and divergence, and alternative entropy measures
- Maximum entropy theory, fluid turbulence and boundary layer theory
- Non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in porous media, including surface/interfacial tension phenomena, nucleation phenomena and multiphase systems
- Environmental impact and sustainability of alternative fuels (e.g. ethanol in petrol)
- Radioactive contaminants
- Environmental management and sustainability.
- Currently pursuing several major research undertakings relating to entropy, thermodynamics and information theory, subsurface and air contamination and environmental management.
- List of Publications
Teaching Experience
- Senior Lecturer
- Course coordinator and/or lecturer for several undergraduate courses in fluid mechanics, hydraulic engineering, environmental engineering and computational methods.
- Teaching of postgraduate coursework in Maximum Entropy Analysis (including invited teaching at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark).
- Past or present supervisor of several BE thesis, Masters and PhD students.
Additional
- Senior Lecturer, present position, UNSW@ADFA (2004-)
- Lecturer, UNSW@ADFA (1999-2004)
- Fulbright Professional Fellow (2003)
- Winston Churchill Fellow (1998)
- Marie Curie Incoming International Fellow, Niels Bohr Institute, Københaven Universitet, Denmark, Jan 2007 to Feb 2008
- Extensive prior professional experience in the engineering and environmental consulting industry.