Professor Warhaft is interested in the subject of turbulence, and does experiments in wind tunnels to study its properties. Turbulence in fluids causes enhanced drag over surfaces (vehicles, buildings) and also greatly enhances mixing (a flick of your spoon in a coffee cup allows the cream to mix in seconds. Mixing by molecular diffusion alone would take days). Turbulence causes efficient transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere and the clearing of pollution. The rate at which reactants are mixed in industrial processes is also determined by the turbulence levels. Using hot-wire anemometers and other techniques, he investigates turbulence mixing as well as fundamental aspects of the turbulence itself. Professor Warhaft is also concerned with the social and environmental aspects of engineering and teaches courses on these topics.

After completing his undergraduate education, Prof. Warhaft was an engineer at the Radio Progagation Research Division, Australian Post Office Research Laboratories, in Melbourne, where he conducted experiments on the effect of the weather on microwave radio propagation. Then, for six years through 1975, he was a research scientist at The Radio and Space Research Station, Science Research Council, United Kingdom (now The Appleton-Rutherford Laboratory). After earning his doctorate, he became a senior project associate for the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, where he also worked with the Meteorology Department. Since 1977 he has been at Cornell University.