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
Baas, J. H., Best, J., & Peakall, J. (2021). Rapid Gravity Flow Transformation Revealed in a Single Climbing Ripple. Geology, 49(5), 493-497. https://doi.org/10.1130/G48181.1
Bristow, N. R., Blois, G., Best, J. L., & Christensen, K. T. (2021). Unsteady dynamics of turbulent flow in the wakes of barchan dunes modulated by overlying boundary-layer structure. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 920, [A51]. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.476
Dou, L., Best, J., Bao, Z., Hou, J., Zhang, L., & Liu, Y. (2021). The sedimentary architecture of hyperpycnites produced by transient turbulent flows in a shallow lacustrine environment. Sedimentary Geology, 411, [105804]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2020.105804
Kazemifar, F., Blois, G., Aybar, M., Perez Calleja, P., Nerenberg, R., Sinha, S., Hardy, R. J., Best, J., Sambrook Smith, G. H., & Christensen, K. T. (2021). The Effect of Biofilms on Turbulent Flow Over Permeable Beds. Water Resources Research, 57(2), [e2019WR026032]. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026032
Kieffer, S. W., Meiburg, E., Best, J., & Austin, J. (2021). The mysterious grooves of Volcán Bárcena: a review of the role of streamwise counter-rotating vortices during erosion by dilute pyroclastic density currents. Bulletin of Volcanology, 83(4), [26]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01440-9
