Research

Since opening in 2014 with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and private philanthropic donors, the Rosenstiel School’s SUSTAIN Laboratory has supported research and testing across a wide range of coastal, ocean, and engineering challenges. SUSTAIN’s controlled wind–wave environment enables repeatable experiments and high-quality measurements that help improve scientific understanding, validate numerical models, and inform real-world design and resilience decisions.

Core research areas and applications include:

• Air-sea interaction and extreme wind-wave physics
  
  • wave growth and breaking
  • sea spray generation
  • gas transfer
• Hurricane and coastal hazards
  • rapid intensification processes
  • storm surge impacts
  • rogue/rare wave events
• Coastal and structural resilience
  • wave and surge loading on structures
  • design guidance for coastal infrastructure
• Ocean observing and instrumentation
  • oceanographic sensors
  • high-speed/stereo imaging
  • instrumentation visualization and validation footage
  • measurement method development
• Environmental and marine systems 
  • harmful algal blooms
  • surface oil spill transport
  • ocean aquaculture
  • Mangrove coastal resilience
• Nature-based and hybrid solutions
  • coral reef restoration
  • hybrid coral/breakwater structures
• Imaging, visualization, and entertainment applications
  • recreating controlled wind-wave and hurricane-like conditions for scientific documentaries
  • educational media
  • select commercial film/television productions