Rate My Professor Davide Wüthrich

Davide Wüthrich is an Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, specializing in hydraulic structures and environmental fluid mechanics. He earned a B.Sc. in civil engineering from Politecnico di Torino in Italy, followed by an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). His doctoral thesis investigated the resilience of hydraulic infrastructure, establishing connections between building geometry, wave hydrodynamic properties, and impact loads. Before joining TU Delft in 2021, Wüthrich participated in research and consulting projects across Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Australia, and he holds the position of Honorary Lecturer at The University of Queensland. His career includes applied work on disaster prevention, post-flood forensic surveys, hydropower rehabilitation, and prototype measurements. Currently, his research centers on flood protection measures, air-water flow properties in highly unsteady flows, and the effects of floating debris on flood risk management. Wüthrich teaches courses such as Hydraulic Structures, River Engineering, and Offshore Research Project.

Wüthrich has produced 77 research outputs, including key publications like 'Mitigating scour in aging run-of-river hydropower infrastructure: an analysis of pressure fluctuations in the physical model of Chancy-Pougny (Switzerland)' (2026, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering), 'Numerical analysis of flow and stress redistribution at an open-to-closed channel transition caused by floating debris carpets' (2026, Journal of Fluid Mechanics), 'Flow transition from open-to-closed channels in rivers: implications for plastic accumulation and ice jams' (2026), and 'A Matter of Debris Composition: Analyzing Debris Accumulations at Bridges After the 2021 Flood' (2025). His work has garnered over 1,144 citations on Google Scholar. Notable awards include the VIDI grant for the 'Not-Just-Water' project (2025, up to €850,000), Coastal Engineering Journal Citation Award (2022), Reviewer Award (2021), EPFL Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Distinction in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2019), Jean Valembois Fluid Mechanics Award (2019), and Coastal Engineering Journal Award (2018). He has contributed to media discussions on climate change adaptation, flood research, and dam break risks.