Biography
Jim Best’s current research concerns the mechanics of sediment transport, the investigation of modern sedimentary environments, and the interpretation of ancient alluvium. Current areas of ongoing research include: interactions between turbulent flows and sediment movement, turbulence modulation in sedimentological flows, bedform dynamics, braided river dynamics and deposits, the morphodynamics of river channel confluences, the sedimentology of large rivers, the application of multibeam imaging within sedimentary environments, basin evolution, paleoenvironments, and sedimentology of the Western Irish Namurian Basin.
Education
- Ph.D., Birkbeck College, University of London
- B.S., University of Leeds
Courses Taught
- GEOG/ESE 222 - Big Rivers of the World
- GEOG/GEOL 575 - Alluvial Boundary Layer Dynamics
- GEOL 440: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
- GEOL 415/515: The Geology of County Clare, Western Ireland: sedimentology, paleoecology and evolution of a sedimentary basin
- GEOL 593: Advanced Clastic Sedimentology
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
Recent Publications
Cisneros, J., Best, J., van Dijk, T., Almeida, R. P. D., Amsler, M., Boldt, J., Freitas, B., Galeazzi, C., Huizinga, R., Ianniruberto, M., Ma, H., Nittrouer, J. A., Oberg, K., Orfeo, O., Parsons, D., Szupiany, R., Wang, P., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Dunes in the world’s big rivers are characterized by low-angle lee-side slopes and a complex shape. Nature Geoscience, 13(2), 156-162. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0511-7
Gao, Y., Jiang, Z., Best, J. L., & Zhang, J. (2020). Soft-sediment deformation structures as indicators of tectono-volcanic activity during evolution of a lacustrine basin: A case study from the Upper Triassic Ordos Basin, China. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 115, [104250]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2020.104250
Hackney, C. R., Darby, S. E., Parsons, D. R., Leyland, J., Best, J. L., Aalto, R., Nicholas, A. P., & Houseago, R. C. (Accepted/In press). River bank instability from unsustainable sand mining in the lower Mekong River. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0455-3
Kim, T., Blois, G., Best, J. L., & Christensen, K. T. (2020). Experimental evidence of amplitude modulation in permeable-wall turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 887, [A3]. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2019.1027
Bendixen, M., Best, J., Hackney, C., & Iversen, L. L. (2019). Time is running out for sand. Nature, 571(7763), 29-31. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02042-4
