In memoriam: Iossif Lozovatsky, research professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences
Iossif D. Lozovatsky, research professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences at the University of Notre Dame, passed away Dec. 23. He was 75.
Lozovatsky was an expert in physical oceanography, and his research lab was the world’s oceans. He worked with collaborators from around the world, making more than 20 oceanographic research cruises in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Antarctic oceans as well as the Baltic, Black, Mediterranean and China seas.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Lozovatsky received a master’s degree in oceanography from Lomonosov Moscow State University and a doctorate in physics and math from the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, where he later became a full professor and lead research scientist.
Lozovatsky joined Notre Dame’s Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (EFD) as a research professor in 2010, after serving for 16 years as a research associate and research professor at Arizona State University’s Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics. He was a longtime and close collaborator of Joe Fernando, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences at Notre Dame and EFD’s director.
At Notre Dame, he carried out field measurements, data analysis and theoretical interpretations of ocean turbulence. He was a lead investigator of the Air-Sea Interactions in the Northern Indian Ocean and the Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillations in the Bay of Bengal projects and was a key scientist of the CASPER air-sea interaction study, collecting data from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
“I’ve worked with Iossif on several projects since 2010, including sharing a week in extremely cramped space on a converted fishing boat in the Magellan Straits,” said Scott Coppersmith, senior EFD research engineer. “He was a good guy, strong-willed and generous. He will be missed.”
Lozovatsky published more than 100 papers in international journals, covering small-scale physical oceanography and aspects of atmospheric science and fluid dynamics. He was a visiting scholar and lecturer at the University of Girona in Spain, the University of Western Australia in Perth, the Ocean University of China in Quindao, and the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
He also was known as a gifted teacher, deepening graduate students’ understanding of their field by providing meticulous training and insightful questioning.
He is survived by his daughter, Maria Lozovatskaya.
Latest Faculty & Staff
- Doug Thompson appointed inaugural executive director of diversity and engagementDoug Thompson, current vice president for equity and inclusion at Gustavus Adolphus College, has been appointed as the inaugural executive director of diversity and engagement in the University of Notre Dame’s Division of Student Affairs, effective July 1.
- There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to addressing men’s health issues globallyAt a time when health resources are at a premium and need to be wisely allocated, health professionals must find points within men’s lives when it makes the most sense to intervene and advocate for preventive care for promoting better health outcomes. Life transitions such as marriage and fatherhood are often pivotal and crucial intervention points. But just like every man is different, health concerns across global communities differ as well. Research from the University of Notre Dame finds that not all life transitions produce the same health results, and not all men’s global health policies should look the same from one country to another.
- Three Notre Dame faculty named 2024 Guggenheim FellowsBarbara Montero, a professor of philosophy; Gretchen Reydams-Schils, a professor in the Program of Liberal Studies; and Roy Scranton, an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program and the Environmental Humanities Initiative, are among the 188 scholars, scientists and artists chosen from approximately 3,000 applicants for the fellowship. The Guggenheim Foundation awards these fellowships to outstanding scholars in order to add to the educational, literary, artistic and scientific power of the country.
- Essays on democracy draw attention to critical threats, explore safeguards ahead of Jan. 6Shortly after Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy established the January 6th, 2025, Project, which includes 10 Notre Dame faculty who are preeminent scholars of democracy. In an effort to understand the social, political, psychological and demographic factors that led to that troublesome day, the group created a collection of 14 essays aimed at drawing attention to the vulnerabilities in our democratic system and the threats building against it, hoping to create consensus on ways to remedy both problems.
- Carter Snead testifies before US Senate Judiciary CommitteeO. Carter Snead, the Charles E. Rice Professor of Law and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, offered expert testimony on Wednesday (March 20) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the current legal landscape following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- In memoriam: Ronald Weber, American studies professor emeritusRonald Weber, a professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, died March 12 in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was 89.