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Clay Cooper - Assistant Professor
Division of Hydrologic Sciences
Desert Research Institute
2215 Raggio Parkway Reno, NV 89512
Clay.Cooper@dri.edu
775-673-7372
Students: Christopher L. Shope (Ph.D.) 
Research Interests:

My research interests are in many aspects of transport phenomena and fluid dynamics in multiphase, multicomponent systems above and below the land surface. These include diffusion and dispersion in aquifers and reservoirs, gas flow in both porous media and fractures, density-driven flow due to unstable solute gradients, thermal convection and buoyancy-driven processes, and coupled (chemical, physical, biological) flow and transport, all operating over scales from millimeters to tens of kilometers. Some of these problems lend themselves well to laboratory study, and I am currently developing a research program that expands the use of this investigative tool. Laboratory experiments are currently under-utilized in the hydrologic sciences, although they fill a basic need to further our understanding of certain flow and transport processes. Laboratory investigation enhances our understanding primarily by allowing one to work with few assumptions, explore the physics and scaling properties of phenomena, and develop analytical models that explain correlations at full scale. The results can then be used to challenge and improve existing conceptual models, which in turn can be used to produce more refined numerical models.

Research topics:
Contaminant Transport
Hydrogeology
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