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About

Melike Kurt is a rising leader in the field of bio-inspired fluid dynamics, whose research illuminates how organisms and engineered swimmers harness hydrodynamic forces for locomotion and collective behavior. Her work centers on the physics of swimming near boundaries and the self-organization of schooling swimmers, bridging experiments and simulations to reveal fundamental principles of flow-mediated interactions. In her highly cited 2019 study (42 citations), Kurt demonstrated that a pitching foil swimming freely near a ground plane naturally settles at a stable equilibrium altitude, a finding with profound implications for understanding benthic locomotion and designing near-wall underwater vehicles. More recently, her 2021 and 2024 papers (cumulatively 21 citations) have broken new ground by showing that simple pairs of pitching hydrofoils can achieve two-dimensionally stable schooling formations purely through hydrodynamic interactions, without active control. This discovery, featuring out-of-phase synchronization across in-line, staggered, and side-by-side arrangements, offers a mechanistic explanation for emergent order in fish schools and provides design principles for efficient, self-organizing robotic swarms. Kurt’s work is distinguished by its elegant combination of constrained and free-swimming experiments, making her a key voice in the next generation of fluid dynamicists.