Mustafa Altinakar is director and research professor at the National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering at The University of Mississippi. He holds a Ph.D. in hydraulics and a master’s in applied mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.
Before joining the NCCHE in December 2002, Altinakar served as the acting cirector of LRH-EPFL from 2001 to 2002 and the head of the Fluvial Hydraulics Section of LRH-EPFL from 1997-2001. From 1989 to 1997, he was a senior design engineer and project manager at Bonnard and Gardel Consulting Engineers Ltd. in Lausanne and took part in large-scale projects, including design of dams, hydroelectric power plants, flood protection schemes, drinking water supply, and wastewater collection networks in Switzerland, France, Turkey, and North African countries.
His research areas include fluvial hydraulics and its environmental aspects, sediment transport and local scour, flood simulation and mapping, natural hazards and emergency management, decision support systems, and the design of hydraulic structures. At NCCHE, Altinakar led the development of DSS-WISE™ and DSS-WISE™ Lite software packages. The latter is a web-based, automated dam or levee break flood simulation and mapping tool, which has now become the standard software for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state dam safety offices, and stakeholder federal agencies such as NOAA-NWS, USACE, USDA-NRCS, DOE-ANL.
Altinakar co-authored two books and published more than 150 journal and conference papers. He currently serves on National Reservoir Sedimentation and Sustainability Committee, ASCE-EWRI Technical Committee on “Managing Reservoir Sediment: Technical, Economic, and Policy Issues,” and the IAHR Technical Committee on “Flood Risk Management.” He currently is working on various projects funded by FEMA, DOE-ANL, MDEQ, California State University in Sacramento (acting on behalf of California Department of Water Resources) and USDA-ARS.
Dr. Mark Wilder is Dean and KPMG Chair of Accountancy in the Patterson School of Accountancy at The University of Mississippi. His educational background includes an associate’s degree from Tyler (Texas) Junior College, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama, an MBA from the University of South Alabama, and a Ph.D. in accounting from Florida State University. Wilder is a CPA and has been on the faculty at the University since 1993, serving as dean since 2006. His expertise is in financial accounting and he continues to teach the two intermediate courses as well as a doctoral seminar in financial accounting. He has published in a variety of journals including Accounting Horizons, Advances in Taxation, the Journal of International Accounting Research, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, the Journal of Computer and Information Systems, Current Issues in Auditing, the CPA Journal, and others. Dr. Wilder has been instrumental in the development of the School of Accountancy’s highly successful internship program. He has also been active in the Mississippi Society of CPAs, previously serving as president of the Northeast Chapter, as state-wide Treasurer, and an appointment on the Board of Governors.
Deb Halpern Wenger is Assistant Dean for Partnerships and Innovation and an Associate Professor in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. Wenger conducts multimedia training in newsrooms around the country and is a trainer for the SPJ/Google News Lab program. She is also co-author of two books, Advancing the Story: Journalism in a Multimedia World (Sage, 2014), which is about to be published as a fourth edition, and Managing Today’s News Media: Audience First (Sage, 2015). Her thoughts about new media can be found at 
Mary Margaret Saulters received her bachelor’s in anthropology and biology from the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi and her master’s in rural sociology from the University of Missouri. Her research has focused primarily on intersections between health and the environment, using food systems as a lens through which to explore issues such as ecological degradation, social inequity, hunger, and population health. Mary Margaret is currently serving as the program administrator for the Mississippi Center for Obesity Research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she collaborates with physicians, researchers, and community members to develop and implement programs related to food security and nutrition.
Mann completed her doctoral studies in behavioral nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Building on a food science and nutrition policy background, her research focuses on school nutrition policy, adolescent health, and nutrition education.