Jim Selegean and the "Classic Paper Draft"

RSM River Mechanics Podcast

Dr. Jim Selegean is the Sediment Transport Specialist at the Corps Detroit District where he studies the rivers and sediment loads into the great lakes as well as inland costal processes.

He is also a professor at Wayne State in Detroit. And that joint position has helped him mentor many young scientists and engineers throughout the years, geomorphically trained Hydraulic engineers who not only currently populate the Detroit district but also includes what we call the Detroit diaspora, Jim’s protégées who fill important sediment and river mechanics leadership positions across the Corps.
We recorded this podcast in the lab and field investigation shop Jim built on the Detroit River, which is the most complete and productive corps sediment lab I know of outside Mississippi.
Within my agency, I don’t know anyone who has quite the grasp of the river mechanics cannon, as Dr. Jim Selegean of the Corps of Engineers’ Detroit District.
But he also metabolizes as much contemporary literature as anyone I know in our agency, which manifests in a weekly email he sends out, with the 8-10 best papers he read from current journals that week and a 3-4 sentence summary of his favorites.

(If you’d like to get on that list, you can reach out to him at [e-mail])
One of the things I found helpful in my Ecology education was a Foundations of Ecology text (https://a.co/d/9zjK1wg) which compiled the classic papers in ecology and commentaries by noted contemporary scientists whose work built on that particular area of reflection.
Years ago I pitched this type of book to Jim, suggesting we should try to write it of our field.
He just laughed at me, wisely predicting that neither of us nearly the time required.
But when I stared to design this podcast, I knew I wanted to recording a kind of “pitch meeting” for the papers we would each include in that compilation.
But, Jim is also one of the most fun people I work so we tried to make it a little more entertaining…and a little competitive, by giving it a draft format (like picking players for a schoolyard football game).
There was some strategy…that mostly went Jim’s way.
Feel free to find the posts associated with this podcast on LinkedIn or X to offer your choices…maybe we’ll do another one.
But for now, welcome, to the RSM River Mechanics Podcast…Classic Paper Draft.

This series was funded by the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) program.
Stanford Gibson (HEC Sediment Specialist) hosts.
Mike Loretto edited the episode and wrote and performed the music.
Video shorts and other bonus content are available at the podcast website:
https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/rasdocs/rastraining/latest/the-rsm-river-mechanics-podcast
...but most of the supplementary videos are available on the HEC Sediment YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/stanfordgibson
If you have guest recommendations or feedback you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or ResearchGate or fill out this recommendation and feedback form: https://forms.gle/wWJLVSEYe7S8Cd248