Glenn Richard Flierl (born 1948) is Professor of Oceanography at the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1970, he received his B.A. in Physics from Oberlin College and in 1975 his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. Advised by Allan Richard Robinson, he graduated with the dissertation "Gulf Stream Meandering, Ring Formation and Ring Propagation". He joined the faculty at MIT in 1976.
Research
He is known for fundamental insights into the dynamics of vortices and geostrophic turbulence and their impact on marine ecosystems.
He is also known for informing and inspiring the public about marine science. For example, he explains unusual ocean features, like paired eddies, in the Newsweek article "Double Whirlpools Found Spinning Across Hundreds of Miles in the Ocean Seen for the First Time".
Awards
In 2014, Glenn R. Flierl was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He received the Henry Stommel Research Award of the American Meteorological Society in 2015.
