Nathalie Vriend is the Faculty Fellow in the Office of Faculty Affairs with oversight for Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP), a program designed to build leadership skills in faculty in their first three years. Nathalie also hosts gatherings to help build stronger connections between international faculty members across campus and develop a welcoming environment for them at CU Â鶹¹ÙÍø.ÌýÌý
As Associate Professor of Thermo Fluid Sciences, Mechanics of Materials in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nathalie leads the Granular Flow Laboratory. She is an expert in performing detailed laboratory experiments and targeted field work involving particulate flows such as sand and snow. In addition, she also employs numerical simulations and theoretical modelling to complement observations, often in collaboration with scientists from multidisciplinary fields. She has active projects in granular rheology and avalanching, and dune structure and migration. In the past she worked on the dynamics of real snow avalanches, singing sand dunes, silo honking, and seismic wave propagation.ÌýNathalie is an enthusiastic long-distance backpacker. In 2019, she hiked with her husband and kids (then 6 and 8 years old) the 220-mile John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and in 2024, they hiked most of the Colorado Trail.Ìý