Coastal Dynamic Lab Director:

Philippe Tissot

Bio: 

I am the Chair of Coastal Artificial Intelligence at the Conrad Blucher Institute and an Associate Research Professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC). My research focuses on the analysis and prediction of coastal physical processes and the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to improve these predictions and gain different insights into these processes. Projects are often with local partners, County, City, State and Federal Agencies.

Areas of recent activity include:

• Development of AI deep learning model (3D CNN) for the prediction of coastal fog

• Development of AI models to help the mitigation sea turtle cold stunning events and broadly sea turtle conservation

• Study of local and regional sea level rise and its impact

• Development of models and methods to predict coastal inundation including runup to inform planning, emergency management, sea turtle nesting

I have authored or co-authored about 50 peer reviewed articles, over 230 proceedings, abstracts, technical and stakeholder presentations, a Physical Science text book for future K-12 teachers, and two US patents. During 2001-2013 I was Assistant then Associate Professor of Physics prior to switching to a Research Faculty track. Prior to joining TAMU-CC in 1999, I was a research scientist at a private research institution working on R&D projects including developing prototypes for companies in the areas of oil exploration, environmental assessment, semiconductor materials analysis, and treatment of engineered wood materials.

Education:

• Ph.D in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station

• Diploma (M.S.) in Physics Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne

Recent Publications

Kamangir H, Collins W, Tissot P, King SA (2020). A deep-learning model to predict thunderstorms within 400 km^2 South Texas domains. Meteorol Appl. 2020;27:e1905. https://doi. org/10.1002/met.1905.

McGovern, A., Ebert-Uphoff, I., He, R., Tissot, P., Thorncroft, C., Bostrom, A., Demouth, J., Hickey, J., Williams, J., Boukabara, S. and Gagne, D.J. (2020). Artificial Intelligence and the Wicked Sustainability Problem, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, https://eos.org/opinions/weathering-environmental-change-through-advances-in-ai.

Michelle Culver, James Gibeaut, Donna Shaver, Philippe Tissot and Michael Starek (2020) Using lidar data to assess the relationship between beach geomorphology and Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) nest site selection along Padre Island, TX, USA. Frontiers in Marine Science 7, 214  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00214.

Nguyen, C., Starek, M. J., Tissot, P. & Gibeaut, J. (2019). Unsupervised clustering of multi-perspective 3D point cloud data in marshes: a case study. Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing, 11(22), 2715. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/22/2715

Liu, N., Liu, C. & Tissot, P.E. (2019). A Bayesian-like approach to describe the regional variation of high-flash rate thunderstorms from thermodynamic and kinematic environment variables. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, accepted. doi: 10.1029/2019JD031254

Nguyen, C., Starek, M. J., Tissot, P., Cai, X. & Gibeaut, J. (2019). Ensemble Neural Networks for Modeling DEM Error. International Journal of Geo-Information, 8, 444. doi.org/10.3390/ijgi8100444 

Richard H. Moss; Susan Avery; Kristin Baja; Maxine Burkett; Ann Marie Chischilly; Jan Dell; Paul Fleming; Kerrie Geil; Katharine Jacobs; Andrew Jones; Kim Knowlton; Jay Koh; Maria Lemos; Jerry Melillo; Raj Pandya; Therese Richmond; Lynn Scarlett; Jared Snyder; Missy Stults; Anne Waple; Jessica Whitehead; Daniel Zarrilli; Bilal Ayyub; James Fox; Auroop Ganguly; Lucas Joppa; Susan Julius; Paul Kirshen; Rebecca Kreutter; Amy McGovern; Ryan Meyer; James Neumann; William Solecki; Joel Smith; Philippe Tissot; Gary Yohe; Rae Zimmerman (2019). Evaluating Knowledge to Support Climate Action: A Framework for Sustained Assessment. Weather, Climate, and Society, WCAS-D-18-0134. doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0134.1

Ahmed, M., Sultan, M., Elbayoumi, T. & Tissot, P. (2019). Forecasting GRACE Data over the African Watersheds Using Artificial Neural Networks. Remote Sensing 11(15), 1769. Doi.org/10.3390/rs11151769.

Nguyen, C., Starek, M. J., Tissot, P., & Gibeaut, J. (2018). Unsupervised Clustering Method for Complexity Reduction of Terrestrial Lidar Data in Marshes. Remote Sensing, 10(1), 133. doi.org/10.3390/rs10010133

Reisinger, A., Tissot, P. and Gibeaut, J. (2017) “Suspended Sediments Dynamics of a Texas Estuary from Satellite Observations”, accepted, Frontiers in Marine Science.

Dorina Murgulet, Murgulet Valeriu, Richard R. Hay, Philippe Tissot and Alberto M. Mestas-Nuñez (2017) Relationships Between Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and South Texas Precipitation and Streamflow Variability. Journal of Hydrology, 550, 726-739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.05.041.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.05.041.

Shaver, D. J., Tissot, P. E., Streich, M. M., Walker, J. S., Rubio, C., Amos, A. F., George, J. & Pasawicz, M. R. (2017) Hypothermic stunning of green sea turtles in a western Gulf of Mexico foraging habitat. PLoS ONE 12(3): e0173920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173920.

Collins, W. G. and Tissot, P.E. (2016) Thunderstorm Predictions Using Artificial Neural Networks. In Artificial Neural Networks – Models and Applications, Dr. Joao Luis Garcia Rosa (Ed.), InTech. doi: 10.5772/63542.

Collins, W.C. and Tissot, P.E. (2015) An artificial neural network model to predict thunderstorms within 400 km2 South Texas domains. Meteorological Applications, 22(3), 650-665. doi: 10.1002/met.1499.

Reid, S., Tissot, P. and Williams, D. (2014) Methodology for Applying GIS to Evaluate Hydrodynamic Model Performance in Predicting Coastal Inundation. Journal of Coastal Research, 30(5), 1055-1065. doi: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-13-00160.1.

Froeschke, B., Tissot, P., Stunz, G. and Froeschke, J. (2013) Spatio-temporal predictive models for juvenile Southern Flounder in Texas estuaries. North American Journal of Fisheries 33(4), August 2013; 817-828.

Margaret Dalthorp, Thomas Naehr and Philippe Tissot (2013) Relationship of Subsurface Reservoir Properties and Hydrocarbon Sea Surface Surface Slicks in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. In book: Hydrocarbon Seepage: From Source to Surface, Chapter: 12, Publisher: Society of Exploration Geophysicists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Editors: F. Aminzadeh, T.B. Berge, D.L. Connolly, pp.185-198, 01/2013; DOI:doi:10.1190/1.9781560803119.ch12.

Philippe Tissot and Natalya Warner (2012) Reply to: Alberto A. Boretti. Discussion of Natalya N. Warner, Philippe E. Tissot, Storm flooding sensitivity to sea level rise for Galveston Bay, Texas, Ocean Engineering 44(2012); 23-32. Ocean Engineering, Volume 55, pp. 238-239, December 1, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2012.06.029

Natalya N. Warner and Philippe E. Tissot (2012) Response to Discussion of Storm flooding sensitivity to sea level rise for Galveston Bay, Texas, by Warner, N.N. and Tissot, P.E. Ocean Engineering 44 (2012) 23–32. Ocean Engineering 52, pp. 126-127, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2012.05.020. http://www.asce.org/Books-and-Journals/Books—Personify/Proceedings-(PPR)/Estuarine-and-Coastal-Modeling-(2011)/

Sergey Reid and Philippe Tissot (2012) “Performance of the Coastal Modeling System for Various Conditions in the Navigational Waters of the South Texas Coastal Bend. In Estuarine and Coastal Modeling 2011, Malcolm L. Spaulding ed., American Society of Civil Engineers, November 2012, pp. 496-509, ISBN 9780784412411. http://www.asce.org/Books-and-Journals/Books—Personify/Proceedings-(PPR)/Estuarine-and-Coastal-Modeling-(2011)/ DOI: 10.1061/9780784412411.00029

Natalya Warner, Blair Sterba-Boatwright, Philippe Tissot and Gary Jeffress (2012) Storms, Sea Level Rise and Estimated Increase in Inundation Probability with Confidence Intervals for Galveston, Texas. In Estuarine and Coastal Modeling 2011, Malcolm L. Spaulding ed., American Society of Civil Engineers, November 2012, pp. 528-541, ISBN 9780784412411. DOI: 10.1061/9780784412411.00031.

Natalya Warner and Philippe Tissot, (2012) Storm Flooding Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise for Galveston Bay, Texas. Ocean Engineering, Volume 44, pp. 23-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2012.01.011.

Simoniello, C., Tissot, P., McKee, D., Adams, A., Ball, R., Butler, R. A (2010) Cooperative Approach to Resource Management: Texas Gamefish Win. Journal of the Marine Technology Society, Scientific Note, September/October 2010, vol.44(5), pp5-9.

funding

Projects conducted as Principal or Co-Principal Investigator have been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Florida Department of Environmental Protection through Cooner and Associates, NASA, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Texas General Land Office, Texas SeaGrant, the Texas Research Development Fund and the US Army Corps of Engineers, all gratefully acknowledged.

OPERATIONAL MODELS

STUDENTS RESEARCH

Students Advised:

• Doctorate (PhD): two as chair & co-chair (2007, 2013), member of about 20 other PhD committees

• Masters: 11 as chair & co-chair, member of 13 other committees

• Undergraduate: over 50 research assistants since 1999

Link to students’ presentations, 78 presentations, 16 awards (peer reviewed above)

PRIOR POSITIONS

2007-2013: Associate Professor of Physics

2009-2011: Assistant Director, Conrad Blucher Institute

2001-2007: Assistant Professor of Physics and Physical Science

1999-2001: Assistant Research Scientist, TAMUCC, Corpus Christi, TX

1995-1999: Research Scientist, Houston Advanced Research Center, The Woodlands, TX

1994-1995: Instructional Materials Specialist, TEEX, College Station, TX

TEACHING

• Environmental Forecasting (CMSS 6352) (Currently Teaching)

• General Physics I & II (PHYS 1401 & 1402)

• University I & II (PHYS 2425 & 2426)

• Foundational Approaches Physical Science (SMTE 315)

• Environmental Physics (PHYS 3490)

• Seminar in Earth Science (CMSS 6102)

main service

University: Initial coordinator for the Science Mathematics and Technology Education program (2003-2006), Coordinator for the Coastal and Marine System Science Doctoral program (2006-2007), Interim coordinator for the Physics program (2012-2013), Chair and co-chair of search committees, Member of other search committees, Member of committees including the Graduate Council (2004-2007), Beyond the Core Taskforce, and College Steering Committee, Faculty advisor for the local student chapter of the National Science Teacher Association (2002-2010).

Selected Professional Service: Two term member of the American Meteorological Society(AMS) Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science (2005-2011), Member of the organizing committees of several AMS Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science, Chair of the organizing committee of the 2007 Workshop on the Application of Artificial Intelligence to Environmental and Geospatial Science (2007, Corpus Christi), Member of the organizing committee of the State of Texas Workshop on the Integration and Streaming of Coastal Atmospheric and Oceanographic Environmental Data (2011, Austin, Texas), Member of the Program Committee for the Conference on Intelligent Data Understanding, (2012, Boulder, Colorado).

Community: Frequent participant and speaker at local stakeholder meetings including: Adapting to to Sea Level Rise in the Corpus Christi Area (Nature Conservancy, 2013), Coastal Bend Hurricane Conference (2013), NOAA/ECSC Coupled Ecological-Societal Systems Modeling (CESSM) Workshop for the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (2011).

Expert consultation services provided on water levels, inundation, rip currents, sea level rise to local stakeholders (local governements, national weather service offices, local media).

Lead writer for the report “Sustained, Integrated Ocean Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico (GCOOS): Water Level Element”, part of a plan for a comprehensive, sustained observing system for the Gulf of Mexico submitted by GCOOS to the NOAA IOOS Office, March 2011.

Reviewer for a number of journals including: EOS, Natural Hazards, Advances in Artificial Neural Networks, Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, Journal Global and Planetary Change, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Journal Weather and Forecasting, Continental Shelf Research.

Reviewer for funding agencies including NSF, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Texas Sea Grant.

awards

• 2010: Recipient of a Spring 2010 Texas A&M University System Chancellor Teaching Excellence Award. (top 5 percent)

• 2007: Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Faculty Advisor of the year