Gary Parker, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences (US), and a professor at the University of Illinois, visited Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) on May 18. He engaged in academic discussions and exchanges with the hydropower research team led by Academician Zhang Yongchuan at HUST.

Zhang Yongchuan presented the research achievements of HUST's hydropower discipline, explaining the independently proposed convex dynamic optimization theory and its application in the optimized scheduling of reservoir systems. Using China’s Yellow River and the Mississippi River in the US as case studies, the two sides explored issues such as river evolution, sediment transport, and scheduling constraints, while sharing research experience on river channel management and water-sediment regulation for the Yellow River.

Drawing on his fieldwork in the Yellow River basin, Parker expressed strong resonance with these topics, recalling his field studies of the Yellow River. He shared insights into unique phenomena such as soil erosion on the Loess Plateau and the high-sediment-concentration flows of the Yellow River, emphasizing how the Yellow River serves as an irreplaceable natural laboratory for global river dynamics research.

Both sides agreed that while China and the US face differing hydrological and geographical conditions in managing large rivers, they share many overlapping challenges, such as responding to extreme hydrological events and predicting riverbed evolution. These challenges make comparative studies valuable. Zhang Yongchuan invited Parker to engage in future research related to the Yangtze River basin, fostering collaborative efforts between China and the US in the management of major rivers.

Gary Parker, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He previously taught at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Minnesota in the US before joining the University of Illinois as a professor in 2005. With a focus on river dynamics and deep-sea turbidity currents, his research spans a wide range of topics, including channel morphology, sediment transport, and seabed geomorphology.

Source: School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, HUST