Associate Professor Lance Bode

Associate Professor Room: MP223 Phone: +61 7 4781 4267 Email: lance.bode@jcu.edu.au

CAREER PROFILE:

I obtained my PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh, UK, with a thesis entitled “Boundary layers in geophysical fluids and related flows”. Prior to that, I studied Mathematics and Physics at the Townsville University College (later JCU), obtaining my Honours degree in Physics from the University of Queensland in 1970. Since 1981, I have worked at JCU as a Research Fellow in Engineering, and after that as a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics. In 2003 I was promoted to Associate Professor. My earlier academic career involved lecturing and teaching in Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Greece, and at Monash University. Click here to view my CV.

TEACHING:

My lecturing responsibilities have ranged widely across the subjects offered in the discipline of Mathematics at JCU: MA1020 (Preparatory Mathematics), MA1003 (Mathematical Techniques), MA2000 (Mathematics for Scientists and Engineers), MA2100 (Mathematical Methods and Differential Equations), MA3109 (Applied Complex Variable Theory), MA3201 (Numerical Methods), MA3605 (Operations Research and Modelling), as well as Honours subjects in three areas (Advanced Mathematical Methods, Mathematical Ecology, and Continuum Mechanics).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

My research at JCU has largely focused on physical oceanography and hydrodynamic modelling on the continental shelf, mostly within the Great Barrier Reef region. I have also carried out research and/or consultancies in coastal engineering and storm surge studies, large-scale physical oceanography, tropical cyclone dynamics, environmental impact studies, ecological modelling, and general applied mathematics and modelling. Overall, most of this work has a pronounced marine flavour, and hence lies within the strongest of the University’s official Areas of Research Strength, Marine Science.

• Hydrodynamic Modelling/Physical Oceanography:
  In 1981, I was appointed as a Research Fellow in Engineering at JCU, in a position funded by MST/ARC, with the late Professor Kevin Stark as Chief Investigator. I subsequently became a joint and later sole CI for this project, working closely with Mr Luciano Mason, with whom I have collaborated extensively for over 20 years. We first applied existing storm surge models to more general studies of the physical oceanography of the GBR Region, but later devloped our own numerical models and techniques, in particular a method for parameterising the sub-grid-scale dynamical effects of the flow of water around reefs. This enabled us to develop large-scale numerical models that accurately incorporate the effects of coral reefs on a regional (whole of GBR) scale. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, our model was used to study the Crown-of-Thorns phenomenon, thus opening up new opportunities in the application of physically-based models to biological and ecological problems. This made it possible to link our work with that of the newly created Reef CRC in 1994, so that my research then focused more strongly on combined physical-ecological modelling. With the help of CRC funding, we have investigated the role of inter-reefal connectivity on the population dynamics of reef fishes in the GBR.

More recently, I have become interested in the use of numerical modelling to investigate the problem of coral bleaching. I have also returned to work on a couple of areas associated with tropical cyclone dynamics (which formed part of my PhD studies): a study for the whole of Queensland on the near-coastal effects of tropical cyclones and climate change; and the development of a tropical cyclone windfield model, as part of a large-scale study of tropical cyclone-induced waves for Woodside Offshore Petroleum.

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:

• Invited speaker at Australian Supercomputing Conference, 1991; Royal Society Tidal Science Conference, London, 1996; session co-chairman and speaker for Tidal Modeling in the Marginal Seas, Western Pacific Western Geophysics Meeting, Taiwan, 1998; QANZIAM Conference, 2004.
• Referee for the following journals: Journal of Journal of Physical Oceanography, Journal of Geophysical Research, Continental Shelf Research, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society B and E, Marine and Freshwater Research (Australia), New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, Coral Reefs, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Coastal Research.
• Member of: Royal Meteorological Society, American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, The Oceanography Society.
• Examiner for approximately a dozen PhD or Masters theses.
• Reviewer for external organizations (research and consulting): ARC, Florida Sea Grant Program, GBRMPA, CSIRO INRE, Woodside Offshore Petroleum, AIMS, EPA (NSW), Australian Bureau of Resource Sciences.

CONSULTANCIES:

In association with the Marine Modelling Unit in the JCU School of Engineering, I have acted as a consultant to a number of government and private organisations over the past 20 years or so, including:

• Environment Australia
• Defence Science and Technology Organisation
• Commonwealth Commission of Enquiry for the East Coast Armaments Complex
• WBM Oceanics Australia
• Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences
• Australian Water and Coastal Studies Pty Ltd
• Sinclair Knight Merz
• Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
• Woodside Offshore Petroleum

COMPETITIVE FUNDING (Last five years)

STUDENT PROJECTS

PUBLICATIONS (Last 5 years & Career Best):

REFEREED JOURNAL PAPERS AND BOOK CHAPTERS:

1. READ, W.W., SNEDDON, G.E., BODE, L. (2005) “A series method for the eigenvalues of the advection diffusion equation”. Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, E (in press).

2. HARDY, T.A., MASON, L.B., MCCONOCHIE, J.D., BODE, L. (2004) “Modeling suspended sediment during construction of a marina in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area”. Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE, 130, 1021–1031.

3. BURRAGE, D.M., STEINBERG, C.R., MASON, L.B., BODE, L. (2003) “Tidal corrections for TOPEX altimetry in the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef Lagoon: Comparisons with long-term tide gauge records”. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108 (C7), 3241, doi:10.1029/2000JC000441.

4. DE SILVA SAMARASINGHE, J.R., BODE, L., MASON, L.B. (2003) “Modelled response of Gulf St Vincent (South Australia) to evaporation, heating and winds”. Continental Shelf Research, 23, 1285-1313.

5. JAMES, M.K., ARMSWORTH, P.R., MASON, L.B., BODE, L. (2002) “The structure of reef fish metapopulations: modelling larval dispersal and retention patterns”. Proceedings B, Royal Society of London, 269, 2079–2086.

6. ARMSWORTH, P.R., JAMES, M.K., BODE, L. (2001) “When to press on, wait or turn back: dispersal strategies for reef fish larvae”. American Naturalist, 157, 434–450.

7. BODE, L., MASON, L.B., HARDY, T.A. (2001) “Numerical modelling of tropical cyclone storm surge”. In Queensland Climate Change and Community Vulnerability to Tropical Cyclones, Stage 1, B.A. Harper, Ed., pp. 67–98.

8. ARMSWORTH, P.R., BODE, L. (1999) “The consequences of non-passive advection and directed motion for population dynamics”. Proceedings, Royal Society of London, A, 455, 4045–4060.

CAREER BEST PUBLICATIONS:

1. JAMES, M.K., ARMSWORTH, P.R., MASON, L.B., BODE, L. (2002) “The structure of reef fish metapopulations: modelling larval dispersal and retention patterns”. Proceedings B, Royal Society of London, 269, 2079–2086.

2. BODE, L., MASON, L.B., MIDDLETON, J.H. (1997) “Reef parameterisation schemes for long wave models”. Progress in Oceanography, 40, 285–324.

3. DIGHT, I.J., BODE, L., JAMES, M.K. (1990) “Modelling the larval dispersal of Acanthaster planci: I. Large scale hydrodynamics, Cairns Section, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; & II. Patterns of reef connectivity”. Coral Reefs, 9, 115–123 & 125–134.