I received my BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah in 2003. As an undergraduate researcher, I helped develop and implement an inertial measurement unit (advisor Prof. Mark Minor) and was employed by the CSAFE laboratory (advisor Prof. Patrick McMurtry) to run rocket nozzle flow visualizations. I then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (advisor Prof. Alexandra H. Techet) and received my Ph.D. in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering in June 2009. I was selected as a University Laboratory Initiative candidate and received research funding from the Office of Naval Research to study free surface flows. My PhD thesis is entitled “Cavity dynamics of water entry for spheres and ballistic projectiles”.After completing my graduate studies I worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island as a Research Engineer for one year. While there I helped develop a novel, three-dimensional fluid imaging system. For example, we utilized the technology to measure the size distribution and formation of bubbles in a fluid flow formed by jets and droplets. The technique allowed us to visualize the motion of the bubbles in 3D and in time. I also studied multiple types of cavitation events and helped model the inception of cavitation at the interface between fluids and solids.

I was an assistant professor at Brigham Young University from July 2010 to December 2014. I am now an associate professor at Utah State University since January 2015. As an assistant professor I started the Splash Lab, where several students and I (typically around ten) study the interaction of fluids with solid objects. Our studies have focused on the water entry and exit of solids objects, microscopic flow visualization, water droplet impact and the formation and rupture of soap films. Further, our studies typically incorporate solid bodies that can flex and alter their shape elastically, making our studies more complex and more relevant to many of the more modern materials that are used in current-day industry and commercial products.

I have taught 14 courses as a Professor. I have taught a capstone course, three courses in fluid dynamics and a course in instrumentation. My courses offer the typical lectures, homework and testing and include an individual or team project that has a significant writing component. I use this writing component to help students synthesize the concepts they have learned throughout the semester. Success is measured by both the quality of the research they perform as well as the overwhelmingly good experiences they have as evidenced by their comments. One student wrote, “I have learned more in this course than in most of my courses here at BYU. Professor Truscott inspired us to do our own semester long projects. This gave us all a chance to dedicate a lot of time to something we were interested in learning about. I gained so much hands-on experience from this class that will help me in research with professors in the future.”

In my laboratory, I mentor students in a similar self-motivated direction but the methods aren’t at the board or in the classroom, instead they are at the work bench discussing research side by side. I expect my graduate students to present at a conference and publish in a peer- reviewed journal; encouraging undergraduates to do the same. So far each of my graduate students has presented at a conference and has either submitted to a journal or is in the process of doing so.

I am currently a member of the American Physical Society and am an active member of the Division of Fluid Dynamics division of that society. My activity within this community has resulted in 49 presentations and 39 posters within an 13-year period. The annual poster contest is known as the Gallery of Fluid Motion Awards and I have won 10 times, 5 of which are Milton Van Dyke awards (the highest honor of the conference). Most of the posters/videos that we have won have some sort of splash dynamics and generally lead to journal publications.

My research is primarily funded by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. I have been awarded multiple grants over the past eleven years totaling over $1.7 million. These grants support two main areas of research: the water entry and exit of solid and elastic objects, and the development of a 3D imaging method for fluid dynamics. In addition to these awards I have been a summer research fellow for the Navy for 3 years in a row (2011-2013).

As a graduate student I studied the effect of wetting angle from surface treatments and dynamic effects on the water entry of spheres. I also studied the stabilization criterion for the water entry of bullets designed to travel underwater. During my graduate studies I helped pioneer a quantitative 3D imaging technique now known as Synthetic Aperture Particle Image Velocimetry (SAPIV). I continue to develop imaging methods that utilize the technological basis of this technique. I have expanded the technique to include multiphase flows and microscopic imaging.

My current research focuses on the cavity dynamics and forces acting on elastic bodies falling through the air-water interface. I also study splash dynamics of droplets and objects that interact with the water surface in both shallow and deep fluid pools. My work tends to lead to better flow visualization techniques stemming from my ongoing research in these complicated free surface flows. My work has been formally published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physics of Fluids, Experiments in Fluids, Physics Today, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, etc. and many conferences. My award winning photographs have been highlighted in National Geographic and Popular Mechanics and he has appeared as a guest on Discovery Channel’s ‘Time Warp’ a television program that focuses on high-speed photography. My research has also received significant media attention and been published by the BBC, Wired Magazine, Time and La Monde.