Professor Messaros' primary focus involves coastal hydraulics for the Hurricane Sandy Relief Branch with the US Army Corps of Engineers. His responsibilities include using Coastal Engineering Modeling (CEM) software to assist with the design of flood control structures (levees/floodwalls) such as those present in the Port Monmouth Storm Surge Protection project. He performs floodplain analysis studies using Hydrologic Engineering Center – River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) and Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) software. He also writes and reviews project restoration plans, project management plans, and scopes of work for coastal projects.
Before his involvement in the Hurricane Sandy Relief Branch, Professor Messaros served as the lead hydraulic engineer for five years on the Green Brook Flood Control project. There he attended and presented at periodic Flood Board meetings, communicated the basics of hydrology and hydraulics as it relates to elements of our project to local officials and property owners. He was also involved in the preparation of the Levee Safety Evaluation Report and the hydraulic section of the LOMR (Letter of Map Revision) submitted to FEMA for Levee Accreditation for this world-class flood risk management project.
Professor Messaros contributed to the Jamaica Bay (Brooklyn/Queens, NY) marsh island mitigation/restoration, construction/monitoring and acted in a dual capacity as project engineer and hydraulic (design) engineer for this interagency, multimillion-dollar project to restore the Elder’s Point tidal marsh habitat.
William Paterson University of New Jersey
Master of Science, Aquatic Ecology
Stevens Institute of Technology 2003
PhD, Coastal Engineering
Journal Articles
R. Messaros, (2013) “Application of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Water Budget Manual to the Finderne Farms Wetland Mitigation and Assessment of Project Performance” Journal of Ecosystems, 2013:983438, 11 pp.
I. Watts and R. Messaros, (2012) “Investigating Nearshore Berm Placement Scenarios in Long Island Sound, Proceedings of the 10th Intl. Conf. on Hydroscience & Engineering, Nov. 4-7, 2012, Orlando, FL.
R. Messaros, G. S. Woolley, M. J. Morgan, and P. Rafferty, (2011) “Tidal Wetlands Restoration”, InTechOpen, Ecosystem/Book 2, ISBN 979-953-307-871-6, Online 22 pp.
R. Messaros, G. S. Woolley, and P. Rafferty, (2010) “Challenges and Successes of Tidal Wetlands Restoration in Jamaica Bay, New York”, ASCE Conference Proceedings, Watershed Management 2010, 343-363.
R. Messaros and M. Bruno, (2010) “Laboratory Investigation of Bedform Geometry Under Regular and Irregular Surface Gravity Waves”, Journal of Coastal Research, 27:6A, 94-103.
R. Messaros and S. Scypinski, (1994) "Improvement in Precision of Robotic Content Uniformity Analysis of a Pharmaceutical In-Process Blend Through Modification of the Powder Pouring Program", Laboratory Robotics and Automation, 7, 35-40.
M.J. Sebetich and R. Messaros, (1993) "Paleolimnology of Green Pond, a 200-ha Glacial Lake in the Highlands Province of New Jersey, USA", Verhandlungen Internationale Vereinigung Limnologie, 25, 1065-1071.