David Richter

Dr. Richter is the Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Environmental Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 2002, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2011. His dissertation focused on the turbulent transition of viscoelastic flows using numerical simulations – something almost entirely unrelated to his present research interests. Following his Ph.D. he received the Advanced Study Program Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, where he shifted his research focus towards turbulent, multiphase processes in the environment. He is a recipient of the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, multiple teaching awards within Notre Dame, and his current research attempts to understand phenomena including air-sea interactions within hurricanes, dust transport in the atmosphere, and cloud microphysics. He is the lead PI on a recent ONR MURI aimed at studying air-sea fluxes in high winds.

Academic Positions

• 2025 - Present: Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Environmental Fluid Dynamics

  Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Concurrent
  University of Notre Dame

• 2025 - Present: Professor

  Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
  Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Concurrent
  University of Notre Dame

• 2019 - 2025: Associate Professor

  Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
  University of Notre Dame

• 2013 - 2019: Assistant Professor

  Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
  University of Notre Dame

• 2011 - 2013: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  Advanced Study Program
  National Center for Atmospheric Research

• 2006 - 2011: Ph.D. Research Associate

  Stanford Graduate Fellowship
  School of Engineering Graduate Fellowship
  Mechanical Engineering
  Stanford University