

Hannah Power
Associate Professor of Coastal and Marine Science
Hannah Power is an Associate Professor of Coastal and Marine Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and a Science and Technology Australia 2021-2022 Superstar of STEM.
Hannah has worked on coastlines in Australia and around the world. Her research investigates the beaches, estuaries, rivers, and reefs and examines how processes such as waves, tides, and currents change the shape of our coast over time. Hannah also works on improving predictions of extreme events and hazards such as tsunami.
Hannah is a passionate science communicator and is regularly featured in media in Australia and overseas.
Research Interests
Hannah researches the processes and morphology of coastal environments using field studies, remote sensing, and modelling. She investigates a range of environments – from temperate sandy beaches to tropical coral reefs – and studies various processes from typical wave breaking to hazards like tsunami. The outcomes from her research have tangible impacts for communities and underpin sound coastal management practices.
Hannah has authored over 60 publications and has been awarded over $1.5M in competitive funding as well as two major research voyages on Australia's Marine National Facility.
Publications
Power, H. E., Pomeroy, A. W. M., Kinsela, M. A., and Murray, T. P. (2021). Research priorities for coastal geoscience and engineering: A collaborative exercise in priority setting from Australia. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8: 252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.645797
Power, H. E., Broadfoot, M. S. S., Burke, A., Donaldson, P. M., Hart, R. M., Mollison, K. C., Schmidt, D. J., and Young, S. M. (2020), Lessons learned from running a conference in the time of COVID-19 and the silver linings of shifting to online. Oceanography, 33(3), 21-25. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2020.312
Power, H. E., Gharabaghi, B., Bonakdari, H., Robertson, B., Atkinson A. L., and Baldock, T. E. (2019), Prediction of Wave Runup on Beaches Using Gene-Expression Programming and Empirical Relationships, Coastal Engineering, 144, 47-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2018.10.006