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Dr. Gabriel T. Csanady is recognized for his fundamental contributions to the understanding of circulation and mixing on the continental shelf and in lakes. His pioneering work in developing simple models for coastal dynamics and exchange processes has provided guidance and inspiration for an entire generation of oceanographers and limnologists. Dr. Csanady began his professional career as a mechanical engineer with specialties in fluid flow and aeronautics. Later, as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Universities of Windsor (1961-63) and Waterloo (1963-73), he conducted extensive research and modelling of the Great Lakes circulation while at the same time pursuing interests in the structure and dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer. In 1973, Dr. Csanady was appointed Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where he focused his attention on coastal dynamics and mixing. In 1987, he received the coveted Samuel L. and Fay M. Slover Chair of Oceanography at Old Dominion University, where he actively pursues his varied interests in the physics of lakes, oceans and the atmosphere, and in the role of the ocean in climate change. Over his long and productive career, Dr. Csanady has made significant contributions to several scientific disciplines. In the field of coastal dynamics, his simple circulation models, such as the "arrested topographic wave", have become modern classical tools for the interpretation of both field observations and numerical model results. His treatise on turbulent diffusion in the environment is a clear and unified description of mixing processes that provides a sound basis for the investigation of important practical issues, such as estimation of the assimilative capacity of coastal waters for pollutants. By combining theory with careful field observations he has also provided new insights into the structure of the surface layer of the ocean and into the exchanges of momentum and gas across the air-sea interface.