{"688042":{"#nid":"688042","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Physics Nonlinear Seminar | Title: Rogue Waves and Black Holes: Breaking Giants at the Edge of Catastrophe | Speaker: Dr. Francesco Fedele \u2013 GT School of Civil and Environmental Engineering","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle: Rogue Waves and Black Holes: Breaking Giants at the Edge of Catastrophe\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESpeaker: \u003C\/strong\u003EFrancesco Fedele, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHost:\u003C\/strong\u003E Prof. Flavio Fenton\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract: \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003ERogue waves are sudden, giant ocean waves that can rise to more than twice the height of the surrounding waves. But do these oceans giant breaks\u2014releasing their energy as turbulence, whitecaps, and vortices\u2014or can they grow unbounded? They break! I will discuss how, near breaking, waves follow a slow\u2013fast dynamics: the fluid motion evolves gradually, while the crest shape changes rapidly in a proper relational clock. This behavior corresponds to a fold catastrophe, a geometric skeleton describing a wave near collapse. Waves reach a breaking inception point measured by the silver ratio, the little brother of the golden ratio. This inception marks the true \u201cpoint of no return,\u201d preceding the dramatic breaking onset\u2014analogous to the event and apparent horizons of collapsing black holes. This gravitational analogy reveals a deep geometric structure underlying rogue waves, showing how extreme energy and hidden relational timing combine to produce nature\u2019s most sudden and striking events.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EShort Bio:\u003C\/strong\u003E Dr. Francesco Fedele is an Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Vermont in 2004 and a Laurea in Civil Engineering from the Universit\u00e0 Mediterranea, Italy, in 1998. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2007 after a postdoctoral research appointment at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/francesco-fedele\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/francesco-fedele\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle: Rogue Waves and Black Holes: Breaking Giants at the Edge of Catastrophe\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESpeaker: \u003C\/strong\u003EFrancesco Fedele, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHost:\u003C\/strong\u003E Prof. Flavio Fenton\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract: \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003ERogue waves are sudden, giant ocean waves that can rise to more than twice the height of the surrounding waves. But do these oceans giant breaks\u2014releasing their energy as turbulence, whitecaps, and vortices\u2014or can they grow unbounded? They break! I will discuss how, near breaking, waves follow a slow\u2013fast dynamics: the fluid motion evolves gradually, while the crest shape changes rapidly in a proper relational clock. This behavior corresponds to a fold catastrophe, a geometric skeleton describing a wave near collapse. Waves reach a breaking inception point measured by the silver ratio, the little brother of the golden ratio. This inception marks the true \u201cpoint of no return,\u201d preceding the dramatic breaking onset\u2014analogous to the event and apparent horizons of collapsing black holes. This gravitational analogy reveals a deep geometric structure underlying rogue waves, showing how extreme energy and hidden relational timing combine to produce nature\u2019s most sudden and striking events.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EShort Bio:\u003C\/strong\u003E Dr. Francesco Fedele is an Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Vermont in 2004 and a Laurea in Civil Engineering from the Universit\u00e0 Mediterranea, Italy, in 1998. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2007 after a postdoctoral research appointment at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/francesco-fedele\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/francesco-fedele\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Physics Nonlinear Seminar | Title: Rogue Waves and Black Holes: Breaking Giants at the Edge of Catastrophe | Speaker: Dr. Francesco Fedele \u2013 GT School of Civil and Environmental Engineering"}],"uid":"36625","created_gmt":"2026-02-05 16:08:29","changed_gmt":"2026-02-05 16:20:27","author":"crichardson76","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-02-11T14:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-02-11T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-02-11T15:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-02-11 19:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-02-11 20:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-02-11 20:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Howey - Room N-110","extras":[],"hg_media":{"679194":{"id":"679194","type":"image","title":"Dr. Francesco Fedele","body":null,"created":"1770308350","gmt_created":"2026-02-05 16:19:10","changed":"1770308350","gmt_changed":"2026-02-05 16:19:10","alt":"Dr. Francesco Fedele","file":{"fid":"263325","name":"Dr.-Francesco-Fedele.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/05\/Dr.-Francesco-Fedele.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/02\/05\/Dr.-Francesco-Fedele.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":97575,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/02\/05\/Dr.-Francesco-Fedele.jpg?itok=Gl6No7NK"}}},"media_ids":["679194"],"groups":[{"id":"126011","name":"School of Physics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"177814","name":"Postdoc"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}