Dr. Hermann Fritz is a professor of civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He is an expert on coastal hazards, such as tsunamis, hurricane storm surge and storm waves, landslides and submarine volcanic eruptions. Dr. Fritz has led or participated in more than a dozen post-disaster reconnaissance campaigns encompassing tsunami, hurricane, landslide, and earthquake events. Tsunami Surveys: 2004 Indian Ocean (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Somalia, Madagascar, Oman, Yemen, Comoros), 2006 Java, 2007 Solomon Islands and Peru, 2009 Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga, 2010 Solomon Islands, Haiti, Chile, and Mentawai Islands, 2011 Japan, 2012 El Salvador, 2013 Solomon Islands, 2014 and 2015 Chile, 2017 Greenland, 2018 Sulawesi and Krakatau. Hurricane Surveys: 2005 Hurricane Katrina, 2007 Tropical Cyclone Gonu (Oman), 2008 Tropical Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar), 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (Philippines), 2015 Tropical Cyclone Pam (Vanuatu), 2017 Hurricane Nate. Dr. Fritz's research centers on fluid dynamic aspects of natural hazards as well as their mitigation and coastal protection. Dr. Fritz obtained his Doctorate degree (Dr. sc. ETH Zurich) in 2002 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Switzerland).
Dr. Fritz has developed a strong research effort covering experimental (both field and laboratory) and computational methods in fluid dynamics, hydraulics and geophysics. His research focuses on coastal hazards such as tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, and volcanoes. Dr. Fritz’s work encompasses non-linear and breaking water waves; subaerial and submarine mass flows such as landslides, avalanches, island collapses, and submarine volcanic eruptions; floods, river engineering and morphologic processes; hydraulic and coastal structures such as seawalls, breakwaters, levees and dams along with their failure and breaching mechanisms; hydropower, wave, tidal and ocean current energy. His research is significantly enhancing the hazard prevention, mitigation and protection of coastal and mountainous areas on a truly global scale.
| Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Dr. sc. techn. ETH) | ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) | 2002 |
| M.S. in Civil Engineering (Dipl.-Ing. ETH) | ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) | 1997 |
Professor Fritz’ teaching focuses on civil and environmental engineering at undergraduate and graduate levels, emphasizing dynamics, fluid mechanics, hydraulic engineering, coastal hazards, coastal structures, and experimental methods. His instruction integrates fundamental principles with practical applications to prepare students for research and professional practice. Professor Fritz is committed to fostering student engagement through hands-on learning and critical thinking in courses related to hydraulic and coastal engineering.
Professor Hermann Fritz and other experts from Georgia Tech discuss Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophic landfall and how its legacy of destruction and displacement continues to challenge disaster preparedness across the U.S.
CEE students were recognized for their work by industry professionals, again winning first, second, and third place in a regional competition for the second consecutive year.
Professor Hermann Fritz and his former graduate student, Yibin Liu, are interested in a specific kind of tsunami, those caused by underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides. So, they built a volcanic tsunami generator in a wave basin — essentially, a large lab-in-a-tank for studying wave behavior.
