Francesca Messina, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist with The Water Institute Coastal and Deltaic Systems Modeling department.

She received her master and doctorate degrees in environmental engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy. Her Ph.D. research focused on modelling flow and colloidal particle transport and deposition in porous media for groundwater remediation purposes.

Her current research at The Water Institute focuses on numerical modeling of coastal, estuarine, and riverine systems, mainly focusing on hydrodynamic and salinity dynamic. In the last eight years at The Water Institute, she has been heavily involved in the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Program and studying the effect of restoration projects such as the proposed sediment diversions. She developed real time forecasting systems for coastal and flood applications and is currently involved in the development of a model catalog to host environmental-related numerical models to promote discoverability, sharing, and use of existing models and their results among the scientific community.

As an environmental engineer, she is interested in environmental fluid dynamics, reclamation of polluted sites, pollutant dynamic, and sanitary and environmental engineering.