In Memoriam: Dr. Scott Hagen
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is profoundly sorry to learn
of the passing of Dr. Scott Hagen, one of our own esteemed faculty members who had
a long and successful career in the field of coastal engineering. Dr. Hagen embodied
what it takes to have a distinguished academic career. He always carried himself with
a zeal and zest for his work. We send our sympathy and condolences to his wife Dr.
Denise Elizabeth DeLorme and the rest of the family.
On January 8, 2015, Dr. Hagen joined our faculty and was named the John P. Laborde Endowed Chair for Sea Grant Research and Technology Transfer. He also had an appointment with the LSU Center for Computation and Technology and was a fellow of the LSU Coastal Studies Institute. He spent the previous 17 years at the University of Central Florida, where he established the internationally‐recognized Coastal Hydroscience Analysis, Modeling, and Predictive Simulations (CHAMPS) Lab.
Dr. Hagen and his team developed numerous forecast tide and storm surge models that span the deep ocean to coastal land margins in the northern Gulf of Mexico and are inclusive of the coastal floodplains of Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. His more recent efforts expanded into transport and biogeophysical modeling, with an emphasis on the coastal dynamics of global climate change and sea level rise, in particular.
Dr. Hagen trained and mentored students to conduct scientific research and benefit society through environmental communication and outreach. He led teams that included graduate students working in conjunction with industry and government counterparts to develop coastal inundation models in direct support of FEMA flood plain mapping. These flood insurance studies have been implemented for the Florida Panhandle, the Alabama coastal areas, and the east Florida/Georgia coastal flood plains.
Dr. Hagen was a Professional Engineer with the State of Florida and was certified as a diplomate of both coastal and water resources engineering. He was a past member of the board of governors for the ASCE Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute and served on the predictive modeling technical advisory group for the 2017 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan. In 2012, he hosted the 10th International Conference on Hydroscience & Engineering and was honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award for Advancement of the State‐of‐the‐Art in Hydroscience & Engineering. In 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Rest in peace, Dr. Scott Hagen.