Dr. Donald Webster is the Karen & John Huff School Chair and Professor in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. He holds degrees from UC Davis and UC Berkeley, and has conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford and held a faculty role at the University of Minnesota before joining Georgia Tech in 1997. Dr. Webster specializes in environmental fluid mechanics, with research focusing on how fluid motion and turbulence interact with biological systems. His work spans sensory biology, advanced experimental techniques, and bio-inspired design. He is recognized as a Sustaining Fellow of ASLO and a Fellow of ASCE, and has received numerous teaching and faculty awards for his contributions to education and research.

Dr. Webster's recent research investigates turbulent mixing in meandering chemical plumes, which is less understood than mixing in straight plumes due to complexities in separating meandering motion from turbulence. Using synchronized particle image/tracking velocimetry and laser-induced fluorescence, the study examines a forced meandering plume in a turbulent boundary layer. Findings reveal that meandering plumes exhibit faster centerline concentration decay and greater lateral spreading compared to straight plumes. These effects are driven by alternating-sign vortices created by a diverting plate, which dominate flow behavior and chemical distribution. The study also validates the use of eddy diffusivity models in predicting turbulent flux and highlights how plume width relative to eddy size influences diffusion scaling.