Almost every aspect of the global water cycle involves a mixture of fluids and particles – raindrop formation, ocean currents and water percolation through the soil. This mixture of gas and liquid or liquid and solid causes behaviour that is important to understand, but difficult to predict. This is particularly true when turbulent flow occurs. Dr Lian-Ping Wang at the University of Delaware has developed models and methods that have greatly improved our ability to understand and predict phenomena from localised rainfall patterns to particle transport in industrial processes.