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Past Darcy Lecturers

About the Darcy Lecture Series

To foster interest and excellence in groundwater science and technology, the Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecture Series in Groundwater Science was established in 1986. The series — which has reached more than 85,000 groundwater students, faculty members, and professionals — honors Henry Darcy of France for his 1856 investigations that established the physical basis upon which groundwater hydrogeology has been studied ever since.

How the lecturer is selected

Annually, a panel of scientists and engineers invites an outstanding groundwater professional to share his or her work with their peers and students.

Where lectures are given

The Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecture Series in Groundwater Science is most often presented at universities throughout the world. No fee may be charged to attend the Darcy Lecture Series.

Schedule a presentation

Want to schedule a presentation? Contact Rachel Geddes at rgeddes@ngwa.org or 800 551.7379 (614 898.7791), ext. 504. Lecturer availability is limited. Not all requests can be honored by the lecturer.

Past Lecturers

2012 — S. Majid Hassanizadeh

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The 2012 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer S. Majid Hassanizadeh, Ph.D., has been a professor of hydrogeology on the faculty of geosciences at Utrecht University since 2004 and is the senior adviser with the Soil and Groundwater Department of Deltares research institute. He earned his B.Sc. from Pahlavi University in Iran, and his M.E. and Ph.D. from Princeton University; all three degrees are in civil engineering. Hassanizadeh has worked at Abadan Institute of Technology and Yekom Consulting Engineers, both in Iran, and the National Institute of Public Health and Environment and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, the latter of which named him an Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor in 2001-2003. He has also held visiting faculty positions at the University of Notre Dame; University of Bordeaux, France; EPF Lausanne, Switzerland; and Stuttgart University, Germany.

Hassanizadeh served as editor of Advances in Water Resources (1991-2001) and associate editor of both Vadose Zone Journal (2002-2009) and Water Resources Research (2004-2009). He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (since 2004), and on the editorial boards of Transport in Porous Media (since 1989), Journal of Porous Media Special (since 2009), Topics & Reviews in Porous Media (since 2010), and The Open Hydrology Journal and The Open Civil Engineering Journal (the latter two since 2007). In addition, Hassanizadeh is active as a session organizer or a member of various committees for the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, American Geophysical Union, Soil Science Society of America, European Geophysical Union, and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences. He is a founding member and managing director of the International Society for Porous Media (InterPore). Hassanizadeh has published close to 200 times in journals, books, conference proceedings, and technical reports. He’s cosupervised more than 35 graduate students, coorganized a large number of international conferences, workshops, and short courses, and he’s given more than 50 invited/keynote lectures in international meetings. He is a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union (2002) and American Association for Advancement of Science (2007). He was awarded the honorary degree of Doktor-Ingenieur from Stuttgart University in 2008 and received the von Humboldt prize in 2010.

Hassanizadeh’s research focuses on flow and transport in porous media through theory development, experimental studies, and modeling work. His current research includes pore-network modeling and experimental studies of two-phase flow, pore-network modeling of adsorbing solutes in unsaturated soil, transport of colloids and microorganisms in variably saturated soil, and novel remediation methods for NAPL-polluted soils.

Darcy Lecture Series host institutions were able to select one of two lectures.

"Capillarity in Porous Media, on Micro- and Macroscale, Revisited"

In many soil and aquifer systems, one encounters simultaneous movements of two or more immiscible fluids. These systems are modeled using a modified form of Darcy’s law, mass or volume balance equations, and an empirical relationship between capillary pressure and saturation.

In his lecture, Hassanizadeh explained the general understanding that capillary pressure is equal to the difference in pressures of two fluids. At microscale, this difference is given by the Young-Laplace equation, which prescribes an inverse relationship with the mean radius of curvature. At macroscale, the difference in fluid pressures is assumed to be an algebraic empirical function of saturation, as mentioned above. He provided a unifying approach to the theory of capillarity based on rational thermodynamics and presented alternative definitions of capillary pressure on both micro- and macroscales. In particular, Hassanizadeh made a clear distinction between capillary pressure and pressure difference of fluids. He also showed that the difference in fluid pressures is a function of boundary conditions and dynamic properties of the system, such as flow rate or dynamic viscosities, based on theoretical, experimental, and computational results. Hassanizadeh proposed that the capillary pressure must be an intrinsic property of the fluids/solid system and independent of dynamics of the system and introduced specific interfacial area (area of fluid/ fluid interfaces per unit volume of porous medium) as a new state variable to account for the fact that capillary pressure is a surface phenomenon and not a volumetric one. Theoretical, experimental, and computational evidences were presented that show the empirical capillary pressure-saturation curve should be replaced with the capillary pressure-saturation-interfacial area surface rooted in thermodynamic theory.

"Transport of Viruses in Partially Saturated Soil and Groundwater"

Surface water is often used for recharge of aquifers used in drinking water production. But it can be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms and viruses from wastewater discharges or manure runoff. These pathogens have to be removed to produce safe drinking water such as passing surface water through soil. However, to assure production of safe drinking water from surface water, adequate travel times and travel distances are needed. In this regard, it is important to determine various factors that affect the rate of removal of pathogenic viruses during soil passage. These factors include hydraulic conditions (such as flow velocity and saturation) and geochemical conditions (pH, ionic strength, concentration of calcium). In this lecture, Hassanizadeh presented the results of a large number of laboratory and field experiments involving bacteriophages (viruses affecting bacteria), which were carried out under a variety of conditions under steady-state flow settings and showed how the data from the experiments was used to derive (empirical) relationships between removal rate coefficients and geochemical conditions as well as saturation. He also explained how in the case of unsaturated flow, the role of air/water interfaces in the removal of viruses was also investigated. Findings from experiments performed under transient flow conditions where saturation has been changed significantly were presented and showed how the experiments, as well as other researchers’ results, have demonstrated that both drainage and imbibition fronts cause a remobilization of adsorbed viruses. Mechanisms behind this remobilization were discussed and evidence was provided from pore-scale visualization experiments performed in a micromodel.

2011 — Stephen E. Silliman

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The 2011 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer Stephen “Steve” E. Silliman, Ph.D., joined the University of Notre Dame in January 1986 and is currently a professor of civil engineering and
geological sciences, with an emphasis in groundwater hydrology. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Princeton University, and both a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona. At Notre Dame, he has been responsible for developing a research program in theoretical and applied aspects of groundwater hydrology. He has also enjoyed teaching a diverse set of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, has served as associate dean for undergraduate programs in the College of Engineering, and currently serves as associate chair in his home department. He is also the principal investigator of the Notre Dame Benin Research Program.

Silliman’s research focus is divided between his theoretical/laboratory studies on groundwater flow/transport processes and water resource development/management in developing countries. His work on groundwater flow/transport has historically been focused on studies of the impact of heterogeneity in the saturated zone (flow, chemical transport, particle transport). Recently, this work has become more focused on the vadose zone as well as wellhead management strategies under uncertainty.

His work in developing countries initially took place in Haiti, but has been focused in Benin, West Africa, for more than a decade. In these efforts, he has worked with his students (undergraduate and graduate) and Benin colleagues to train local populations to monitor water quality. These activities include modeling and field characterization of coastal hydraulics with a focus on the potential for saltwater intrusion of the wellfield serving Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, while assisting in the drilling/equipping of a number of manual-pump groundwater wells.

His research has been supported by a number of agencies, ranging from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation to private foundations.

Silliman is a member of NGWA. He has served as an associate editor of NGWA’s Ground Water®, as well as several other journals. He is also active in the American Geophysical Union.

Darcy Lecture Series host institutions had a choice of one of two lecture topics: "Development of Reliable Hydrologic Data Sets in Difficult Environments: Case Studies from Benin, West Africa" or "Characterization of a Complex, Sole-Source Aquifer System in Benin, West Africa".

2010 — Timothy Scheibe

Timothy "Tim" D. Scheibe, Ph.D., joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in September 1992 and is a staff scientist in the Hydrology Technical Group. He received his bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from Washington State University, a master's in civil engineering from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Stanford University. At PNNL, he has been responsible for proposal development, project management, and technical contributions in a number of different areas of environmental research and technology development broadly related to the hydrologic sciences.

His primary research focus is on characterization and numerical simulation of natural subsurface heterogeneity, and its impacts on biogeochemically reactive transport in groundwater systems. His research projects include both computational and field experimental elements. Recently, he has worked on problems in the area of subsurface biogeochemistry, including microbial transport in groundwater, and bioremediation of metals and radionuclides. He is collaborating with computational scientists and applied mathematicians to simulate coupled flow, transport, and biogeochemical processes at cellular, pore, and continuum scales. His research is supported primarily by the Department of Energy's Office of Science through the Environmental Remediation Science Program and the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program.

Ground Water® since 2001 and is active in the American Geophysical Union, in which he represents the Hydrology Section on the Joint Assembly Program Committee.

Darcy Lecture Series host institutions were able to select one of two lectures.

"Beyond the Black Box: Integrating Advanced Characterization of Microbial Processes with Subsurface Reactive Transport Models" was an overview of environmental microbiology.

As a hydrogeologist with a geological engineering background, my natural focus has often been on physical processes of flow and transport in heterogeneous aquifers. Over the past decade, however, I have been privileged to have had opportunities to work closely with microbiologists on several projects, and my engineer brain has been highly stretched in the process. In fact, I have found myself on many occasions amazed not only by the microscopic world of subsurface microbes (did you know that some can "breathe" metal, or that others can flourish within ionizing radiation fields that would quickly destroy us?), but also by how technically advanced the science of microbiology has become.

The field of environmental microbiology has taken a quantum leap through developments in molecular biology such as high-throughput multiplex sequencing, high-density microarrays, and environmental proteomics; these technologies provide a deluge of information on the nature and function of microbial communities in natural systems. Importantly, many of these systems are relevant to such pressing issues as contaminant remediation and subsurface sequestration of carbon dioxide.

A key question is: How can we use this information to make quantitative predictions in support of environmental management decisions? Microbial processes are typically represented in subsurface reactive transport models based on relatively simple reaction rate models that do not account for known and important complexities of microbial function and community dynamics. While conventional approaches have been very effective in many settings, an opportunity is now being realized to improve the foundational basis of reactive transport model predictions by integrating newly available microbial characterization data and understanding.

This talk introduced the audience to the amazing world of subsurface microorganisms and presented some novel approaches for incorporating new knowledge and data into reactive transport simulations. Particular focus was given to genome-scale models of microbial cell function, and how these models were being integrated into simulations of contaminant transport and fate in groundwater systems. These were presented in the context of the application of in situ bioremediation that aims to immobilize uranium in groundwater through microbially mediated metal reduction.

"Quantifying Flow and Reactive Transport in the Heterogeneous Subsurface Environment: From Pores to Porous Media and Facies to Aquifers" was an overview of advanced computational methods.

Hydrogeologists working on problems related to groundwater contamination, remediation, or water quality protection face an extraordinary challenge. The fundamental transport and reaction processes that control contaminant fate occur at length scales that are many orders of magnitude smaller than the scales at which predictions of observable phenomena are needed. Spatial variability (heterogeneity) of physical and biogeochemical properties exists across the entire range of relevant scales.

In this presentation, audiences were taken on a numerical journey through the range of length scales. Along the way, they examined a number of case studies that illustrate both the challenges posed and some exciting ways that advanced computational methods are being brought to bear on these problems. They started by examining pore-scale simulations of flow, transport, and reactions in porous media, in which the complex geometry of solid grains and pore spaces is explicitly quantified. Pore-scale models are being used to develop new understanding of fundamental processes that can be incorporated into larger-scale models that treat porous media as effective continua.

Audiences considered the applicability of two approaches: (1) direct upscaling of pore-scale simulation results using various methods, and (2) multiscale hybrid modeling, in which pore- and continuum-scale models are combined within a single simulation. At the continuum scale, complex geological heterogeneity is expressed at a multitude of scales. For example, in sedimentary aquifers one may observe sediment architectural elements such as lamination (typically millimeter scale), cross-bedding (typically centimeter scale), and larger units such as beds, bed sets, facies, formations, aquifers, and aquitards. The audience examined the representation of geologic heterogeneity in reactive transport models, with a focus on the effects of correlated physical and biogeochemical heterogeneity. These issues were presented in the context of a number of field sites relevant to U.S. Department of Energy contamination problems, including a bacterial transport site, a uranium bioremediation site, and a site with persistent uranium contamination associated with diffusion-controlled mass transfer processes.

2009 — Peter Cook

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Peter Cook, Ph.D., is a senior principal research scientist with CSIRO Land and Water. He received a B.A. in geography from Australian National University in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Earth sciences from Flinders University of South Australia in 1992. Between 1992 and 1994, Cook carried out postdoctoral research at the U.S. Department of Energy and University of Waterloo, Canada, before returning to Australia. Cook’s research interests span the fields of groundwater hydrology, ecohydrology, isotope hydrology, and unsaturated zone flow, but have mostly focused on the use of environmental tracers, including the integration of tracer and hydraulic methods. Specific research projects have involved estimation of aquifer recharge, quantification of groundwater, discharge to streams and wetlands, prediction of stream and groundwater salinization rates, and assessment of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. He has cowritten books on environmental tracers and ecohydrology.

"Environmental Tracers in Modern Hydrogeology: Reducing Uncertainty in Groundwater Flow Estimation" was the title of Cook's Darcy Lecture. Environmental tracers can reduce uncertainty of hydrogeological predictions in all environments, but are particularly valuable in highly heterogeneous systems, where spatial variations in aquifer hydraulic conductivity may range over several orders of magnitude, and so hydraulic approaches are inherently uncertain. Despite the rapid growth of environmental tracers during the past few decades and their adoption by the research community, they are not widely used in routine hydrogeological assessments. This lecture illustrated the potential of environmental tracers through illustration using field sites in North America and Australia, and discussed methods for bridging the gap between research and practice.

Quantitative hydrogeology is often traced back to Henry Darcy who, in the mid-19th century, observed a linear relationship between flow rate and hydraulic gradient, the proportionality constant later becoming known as hydraulic conductivity. Even today, groundwater flow rates are most frequently determined as the product of measured hydraulic gradients and hydraulic conductivities, the latter determined using pumping tests. Although the last 150 years have seen considerable improvements in interpretation of pumping tests, and understanding of isotropy and heterogeneity, estimation of aquifer hydraulic conductivity values at appropriate scales remains a significant source of uncertainty. Within the past few decades, however, environmental tracer methods have been developed that can provide independent estimates of groundwater flow rates, which have helped to overcome some of the problems associated with hydraulic approaches, particularly in heterogeneous systems. However, despite the ability of environmental tracers to constrain conceptual models of groundwater systems and significantly reduce uncertainties in prediction, the methods are underrepresented in hydrogeological textbooks and are still not widely used for hydrogeological assessment.

There are a large number of environmental tracers, all with different properties and hence different potential uses. While environmental tracers that readily undergo chemical reactions can sometimes be used to determine reaction pathways, tracers that behave more conservatively may yield information on transport processes. Calculation of groundwater residence times is one of the more common applications. Tracers that can be used for this purpose include radioactive isotopes, which decay at a known rate (e.g., 14C, 3H), tracers that are produced and accumulate in the subsurface (e.g., He), and tracers that are neither produced nor consumed in the subsurface, but have a variable and well-known input history (e.g., CFCs, SF6). Groundwater residence times in unconfined aquifers can be used to infer aquifer recharge rates, whereas in confined aquifers they allow quantification of horizontal flow velocities. Tracers present in much higher concentrations in groundwater than in surface water have great potential for quantifying groundwater discharge to surface water. In particular, dissolved gas tracers such as radon and helium will rapidly volatilize from surface water and so provide important tracers of recent groundwater inflow. Radon (with a half-life of 3.8 days), in particular, can be used in quantifying rates of groundwater discharge to streams, wetlands, and to the ocean, and also to determine the rate of water exchange between a river and its underlying hyporheic zone.

2008 — Michael Celia

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Michael Celia, Ph.D., was the 2008 Darcy lecturer. He received a B.S. in civil engineering from Lafayette College in 1978, and an M.S. (1979) and Ph.D. (1983) in civil engineering from Princeton University. In 1985, he joined the faculty of MIT, returning to Princeton in 1989 to join the civil engineering faculty. Celia's areas of research include groundwater hydrology, ecohydrology, numerical modeling, contaminant transport simulation, and multiphase flow physics. Ongoing projects include pore-scale network modeling to study interface dynamics, reactive transport, and scaling in porous media systems; computational studies of plant responses to variations in soil moisture in water-stressed ecosystems, with a focus on applications in sub-Saharan Africa; and studies associated with large-scale injection of CO2 into deep brine formations as a possible mitigation strategy for the atmospheric carbon problem. The carbon work is part of a large multidisciplinary effort at Princeton known as the Carbon Mitigation Initiative. Celia served for 10 years as editor of the journal Advances in Water Resources. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and recipient of the 2005 AGU Hydrologic Sciences Award.

"Geological Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option" was the title of Celia's 2008 Darcy Lecture. Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 have increased atmospheric concentration of CO2 by about 35 percent during the past 200 years. The current concentration, at about 385 ppm, represents the highest CO2 concentration in the last 500,000 years. Projected future emissions will lead to doubling of preindustrial CO2 concentration within the next 50 years. If this relentless increase of atmospheric CO2 is to be reduced, or reversed, technological solutions must be implemented on a massive scale. While many options are being considered, one attractive approach is carbon capture and storage, or CCS.

The "geological storage" version of CCS involves capture of CO2 before it is emitted into the atmosphere and subsequent injection of the CO2 into deep geological formations. Injection of CO2 into deep formations leads to a multiphase flow problem that may involve important mass exchange between phases, nonisothermal effects, and complex geochemical reactions. In addition, because enormous quantities of CO2 must be injected to have any significant impact on the atmospheric carbon problem, the spatial scale of the problem becomes very large.

Broad questions involving the fate of the injected CO2, including possible leakage of CO2 out of the formation, as well as the fate of displaced fluids like resident brines, lead to very challenging modeling and analysis problems. Because important leakage pathways can be very localized, and their properties can be highly uncertain, an overall analysis of the system requires resolution of multiple length scales in the context of a probabilistic approach. These requirements render standard numerical simulators ineffective due to excessive computational demands. A series of simplifying assumptions may be proposed to provide more efficient numerical calculations, even to the point of allowing for analytical or semianalytical solutions. Such simplifications, while restrictive in their assumptions, allow for large-scale analysis of leakage in a probabilistic framework while capturing much of the essential physics of the problem. Example calculations illustrate the utility of these methods, and show the current state of leakage estimation. They also lead to a proposal for specific field experiments that can reduce the uncertainty associated with potential leakage pathways.

2007 — James J. Butler Jr.

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James J. Butler Jr., Ph.D., is a senior scientist in the Geohydrology Section of the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas, where he has worked since 1986. Butler also serves as an associate of the KU Center for East Asian Studies and as a courtesy professor in the KU Department of Geology. He has previously held visiting scientist positions in the Center of Applied Geoscience at the University of Tubingen (Germany) and in the Geohydrology Department of Sandia National Laboratory. Butler has also been a graduate researcher in the Institute of Geology of the State Seismological Bureau in Beijing, China.

Butler earned a B.S. in geology from the College of William and Mary, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in applied hydrogeology from Stanford University. His research interests include the development of field methods for site characterization and the assessment of hydrologic processes in stream-aquifer systems. Butler is the author of the book The Design, Performance, and Analysis of Slug Tests, as well as numerous scientific papers on various aspects of applied hydrogeology. He has served as an associate editor for Water Resources Research and the Journal of Hydrology, and is currently serving on the editorial boards of Ground Water® and the Hydrogeology Journal.

Darcy Lecture Series host institutions were able to select one of two lectures.

"Getting the Information Ground Water Modelers Need: A Report from the Field" was a methods-based presentation focusing on new technology for acquiring information about hydraulic conductivity at scales of relevance for investigations of groundwater, contamination. Better information on hydraulic conductivity improves both the accuracy of contaminant-transport predictions and the effectiveness of remediation systems. The lecture described the major elements of this new technology and presented a demonstration of its potential using results from an extensively studied unconsolidated aquifer.

"What the Heck Is a Phreatophyte? A Field Investigation of Ecohydrologic Processes in Stream-Aquifer Systems" was an overview of a multidisciplinary investigation of water use by phreatophytes—plants that utilize groundwater—in semiarid riparian zones. Groundwater consumption by nonnative phreatophytes is an issue of considerable concern in the western United States, as well as elsewhere. The lecture described the various components of the water budget in stream-aquifer systems, with an emphasis on the contribution of riparian zone phreatophytes. The presentation highlighted the ecohydrologic information embedded in water level data from shallow wells, and demonstrated its value for studies of riparian zones stressed by invasive phreatophytes and other factors.

2006 - Eileen Poeter

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Eileen Poeter, Ph.D., the 2006 Darcy lecturer, is a professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and director of the International Ground Water Modeling Center. Before entering academia, she worked for Golder Associates in the early 1980s and has continued to consult throughout her academic career.

Poeter earned a B.S. in geology from Lehigh University in 1975, and an M.S. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1980 in engineering science from Washington State University. Her research focuses on parameter estimation and multimodel evaluation and she is part of the JUPITER (Joint Parameter IdenTification and Evaluation of Reliability) development team.

JUPITER is an application-programming interface (API) intended to energize the science and technology of evaluating sensitivity, assessing data needs, estimating parameters, selecting/ranking models, and evaluating uncertainty. This API, and associated codes, are currently under development by the USGS, in coordination with the U.S. EPA to interface with their software modeling frameworks.

Poeter's lecture, "All Models Are Wrong: How Do We Know Which Are Useful?" detailed how the groundwater profession is searching for appropriate approaches to developing conceptual models, evaluating which are useful, and describing the uncertainty associated with their predictions.

Formulation of a reasonable set of alternative conceptual models coupled with quantitative representation is critical to the process, but is unfortunately more difficult than numerical modeling as it must address the realm of human nature and judgment. In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the dense, opaque character of the subsurface that makes data acquisition expensive, causing the work to be accomplished with sparse, uncertain information.

Nevertheless, movements to meet this challenge are gaining momentum in the groundwater profession. Poeter's presentation discussed available practical approaches to the problem in down-to-earth terms, as well as addressed future challenges.

2005 — Kip Solomon

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Kip Solomon, Ph.D., was the 2005 Darcy lecturer. His education includes a Ph.D. in Earth sciences from the University of Waterloo, an M.S. in geology from the University of Utah, and a B.S. in geological engineering from the University of Utah.

He has been employed by the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah since 1993 and is currently a professor and director of the Noble Gas Laboratory.

Solomon was appointed to the National Research Council's Committee on Improving Practices for Regulating and Managing Low-Activity Radioactive Waste in 2003. He is currently the first vice chair of the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America (GSA).

He was on the editorial board for Ground Water® from 1997 to 2001, and was the Joint Technical Program Chair for the GSA's annual meeting in 1997.

Solomon's lecture subject, "Inert Gas Tracers in Ground Water," illustrated the basic concepts of using inert gas tracers along with case studies that described their applications to real groundwater flow problems.

The case studies focused on groundwater dating, noble gas thermometry, or inject gas tracers, depending on the interests of the hosting institution.

2004 — Allen M. Shapiro

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Allen M. Shapiro, Ph.D., is a research hydrologist with the USGS in Reston, Virginia.

His research has focused on characterizing groundwater flow and chemical transport in fractured rock. It has included investigations in various geologic settings, including fractured and dissolution-enhanced limestone, bedded sedimentary formations, and igneous and metamorphic rock.

Shapiro has authored papers on equipment design and field techniques, the interpretation of hydraulic and geochemical data, and theories of groundwater flow and chemical transport. His research has application to issues of societal importance, including water supply, groundwater contamination and restoration, waste isolation, and groundwater flow in the vicinity of engineered structures.

Shapiro earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in civil and geological engineering from Princeton University.

Shapiro's lecture was titled "Recent Advances in Characterizing Ground Water Flow and Chemical Transport in Fractured Rock: From Cores to Kilometers."

The lecture discussed fractured rock aquifers, which provide water for domestic use, locations for isolating hazardous and toxic waste, and sites for foundations and infrastructure.

For these issues, the dimensions over which the characterization of groundwater flow and chemical transport needs to be conducted can range from meters to kilometers. Critical to the evaluation of these problems is how formation properties may vary over increasingly larger dimensions. Theoretical methods of scaling formation properties may not be successful in their application to fractured rock because of the structural complexity and extreme variability in the hydraulic properties of bedrock environments.

The influence of the physical dimensions of the problem on the magnitude of formation properties is viewed through the synthesis of laboratory studies, controlled field-scale experiments, and the interpretation of ambient groundwater flow and the spatial distribution of dissolved constituents, gases, and isotopes using groundwater flow and chemical-transport modeling.

2003 — Richelle Allen-King

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Richelle Allen-King, Ph.D., an associate professor at University at Buffalo, was the 2003 lecturer. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, and a B.A. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego.

She has served on committees for the National Research Council and presently serves as a member of the Council's Water Science and Technology Board. She also serves as an associate editor for the journals Ground Water® and Water Resources Research.

Allen-King's research focuses on the geochemical processes that control the fate and transport of contaminants in ground and surface waters.

She offered a choice of two lectures: "A Hydrogeochemist's Perspective on Organic Contaminant Transport in Ground Water" or "Ground and Surface Water Contributions to Chemical Mass Discharge: Considering the Problem at Field and Basin Scales."

Host institutions selected the topic of greater interest.

The first topic was of interest to students who are comfortable with the basics of contaminant transport in porous media and the "ideal" model, and may be particularly well suited to programs that emphasize graduate education in hydrogeology, environmental engineering, or related disciplines.

The second topic was of interest to audiences representing a broad range of background and experience in earth sciences and related disciplines.

Go to a Web site about the Darcy Lecture Series prepared by Allen-King.

2002 — David Hyndman

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David Hyndman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Michigan State University, was the Darcy lecturer in 2002.

He serves as an associate editor for both Ground Water® and Water Resources Research. His research focuses on: aquifer characterization methods using three-dimensional seismic, radar, and tracer data; modeling the impacts of land use on water quality; imaging contaminant plumes using ground-penetrating radar; the influence of seasonal recharge pulses on REDOX zonation; the design of bioremediation systems; and modeling microbial transport and contaminant biodegradation.

Hyndman lectured on "Efficient Large-Scale Bioremediation in a Heterogeneous Aquifer: The Schoolcraft Bioaugmentation Experiment." The presentation discussed how groundwater flow and contaminant transport models can be used both to design bioremediation systems and to evaluate the influence of heterogeneities on contaminant fate and transport. The Schoolcraft bioremediation system, which was developed as a multidisciplinary collaborative research effort between hydrogeologists, microbiologists, and environmental engineers, has achieved greater than 95 percent remediation efficiency over a period of three years.

2001 — Mary C. Hill

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Mary C. Hill, Ph.D., a research scientist with the USGS in Boulder, Colorado, was the Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in Ground Water Science for the year 2001.

Hill titled her 2001 lecture, "Guidelines for Effective Model Calibration (Any Model!)." During the presentation, Hill focused on how nonlinear regression and associated statistics can be used to dramatically improve how data are used to calibrate and test models. Examples were drawn from groundwater projects such as modeling of the Death Valley regional groundwater system, which underlies the Nevada Test Site and the proposed U.S. high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

In addition to her work with the USGS, Hill is an adjunct professor at the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the author of the computer software MODFLOWP, the popular PCG2 solver for MODFLOW, and is a coauthor of the software UCODE and MODFLOW-2000. She has written articles on the numerical methods of solvers and nonlinear regression, confidence intervals, and calibration methodology.

Hill has conducted and consulted on numerous groundwater investigations involving numerical modeling, both nationally and internationally, during the past 20 years. She has dealt with situations involving salt water intrusion, groundwater supply and stream interaction, contaminant transport, and evaluation of regional round water flow. She is the 2000 recipient of the Walter L. Huber Research Prize, presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers. She holds an A.B. in geology from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from Princeton University.

2000 — M. James Hendry

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M. James Hendry, Ph.D., of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada, was the lecturer in 2000.

His presentation, "Transport and Geochemical Controls on Solutes in Clay Aquitards," covered physical, hydrogeologic, chemical, isotopic, and biological information from aquitard systems.

Selected topics of his lecture included (1) a determination of the relative importance of advective, diffusive, and osmotic transport in the aquitards; (2) the usefulness of stable isotopes of water as tools to provide an understanding of the timing of major climatic and geologic events in aquitards, and (3) the geochemical controls on the dissolved ions and their implications for long-term solute migration in the aquitard system.

Hendry is a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds an endowed Research Chair in Aqueous Geochemistry and is a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair. Dr. Hendry obtained his Ph.D. in earth sciences from the University of Waterloo in 1984. For the past 20 years, his research interests have included the fate and transport of solutes in low permeability geologic materials and biotic and abiotic reactions in natural unsaturated zones and uranium waste rock piles.

1999 — Scott Tyler

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"Ground Water Recharge in Arid Regions: Questions About Today and the Past" was an introduction to transport through the vadose zone and explored new innovations for quantifying rates of groundwater recharge both under today's climate, as well as those of past climates. Recent innovations in the study of both the hydraulic and geochemical response of the vadose zone are discussed and several applications ranging from waste disposal to paleoclimatic interpretation were reviewed.

Scott W. Tyler, Ph.D., is a professor with the Desert Research Institute and the Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno. Tyler received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut, his M.S. degree in hydrogeology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and his Ph.D. in hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

1998 — Barbara Sherwood-Lollar

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Barbara Sherwood-Lollar, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Geology, University of Toronto, and Director of the Stable Isotope Laboratory in that department since 1991. She is a graduate of Harvard University and holds a Ph.D. in isotope geochemistry from the University of Waterloo. Sherwood-Lollar's specialization is the application of stable isotope geochemistry to gaseous and aqueous systems. Current work focuses on investigation of the origin, transport, and transformation of carbon-bearing compounds and contaminants (including light hydrocarbons and organic solvents) in groundwater and soils.

Her lecture, "Stable Carbon Isotopes: Tools for Direction of the Origin and Fate of the Environmental Contaminants," provided an introduction to environmental isotopes and to the latest technical developments in the application of geochemistry to contaminant hydrogeology. The lecture covered both the scientific basis for using isotopes to trace the source and fate of contaminants, as well as the implications for monitoring protocols and remediation schemes.

1997 — Philip C. Bennett

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"Water, Microbes, and Rocks: The Geochemical Ecology of Contaminated Ground Water" was the title of the lecture given by Phillip C. Bennett, Ph.D. Bennett's lecture introduced the fundamentals of microbial degradation of hydrocarbons, but then went far beyond. Bennett's findings went deep into the geochemical changes in the aquifer and explored the implications of microbial activity upon the weathering of silicates. Bennett received a B.S. from The Evergreen State College, and M.S. in environmental science from the State University of New York, College of the Environmental Science and Forestry, and a Ph.D. in geology from Syracuse University.

Bennett delivered his lecture at 39 academic sites in United States, Canada, Australia, England, and Germany during the 1997 academic year.

1996 — Linda Abriola

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"Organic Liquid Contaminant Entrapment and Persistence in the Subsurface: Interphase Mass Transfer Limitations and Implications for Remediation" was the title of the lecture presented by Linda Abriola, Ph.D. The lecture presented an overview of collaborative research conducted at The University of Michigan during the last five years to elucidate and quantify the processes controlling interphase mass transfer in multiphase subsurface environments. Abriola received a B.S.E. in civil engineering from Drexel University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from Princeton University. For the past 12 years she has been involved in research exploring the transport and fate of organic contaminants in groundwater and soils.

Abriola's lecture was heard by more than 4000 persons at 33 locations in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, and England.

1995 — Paul Hseih

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"A Multidisciplinary, Multiscale Investigation of Fluid Flow and Solute Transport in Fractured Crystalline Rocks: Finds from the Mirror Lake Site, New Hampshire" was the title of Darcy Lecture made by Paul Hseih, Ph.D. Hseih received a B.S. in civil engineering from Princeton University, and a M. S. and Ph.D. in hydrology from the University of Arizona. Since 1997, he has worked as a hydrologist in the research program of the U. S. Geological Survey and at the time of the lecture was stationed in Menlo Park, California.

Dr. Hseih's lecture was heard by more than 5000 persons at 57 locations in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

1994 - Edward Sudicky

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"Contaminant Migration in Complex-Structure Porous and Fractured-Porous Geologic Media: A Simulation Perspective" was the title of the Darcy Lecture given by Edward Sudicky, Ph.D. Professor Sudicky received his Ph.D. in earth sciences from the University of Waterloo in 1983 where he is currently an associate professor and a member of the Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research. His specific interests include the development of analytical and numerical models for application to a variety of groundwater problems, field studies of the spatial variability of flow and contaminant transport parameters, geostatistics, tracer tests, and stochastic approaches to subsurface flow and transport. At the time of his lecture, he had been involved since 1983 in research focused on both field and numerical simulation studies of contaminant migration processes in heterogeneous geological materials.

Sudicky's lecture was heard by more than 3500 persons at 41 academic sites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel.

1993 — Mary Jo Baedecker

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"The Fate of Organic Compounds and Geochemical Processes in Contaminated Aquifers" was the title of the Darcy Lecture presented by Mary Jo Baedecker, Ph.D. Baedecker is a research chemist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds an M.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. in geochemistry from The George Washington University. She spent five years in research of the organic geochemistry of marine sediments at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been in the research program of the USGS for 17 years. Dr. Baedecker's current interests are in the field of environmental geochemistry, and primary organic and inorganic geochemistry of contaminated aquifers. Her work focuses on understanding the fate of organic compounds on groundwater chemistry and the aquifer matrix. She has worked on waste and petroleum products. Baedecker has written for many scientific publications and is adjunct professor at The George Washington University.

Baedecker delivered her lecture at 28 sites across the United States and Canada.

1992 — John Wilson

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"Visualization of Ground Water Flow and Transport Through a Microscope" was the topic of Darcy Lecture given by John Wilson, Ph.D. Wilson is the professor of Hydrology and director of the Hydrology Program at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, New Mexico. He is a B.C.E. graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds M.S., C.E., and Ph.D. degrees from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught groundwater at MIT for eight years and then spent a year with Intera Inc., before joining the Hydrology Program in Socorro in 1984. Wilson's present-day research interests include the fundamental fluid mechanics of permeable media flow and transport, primarily using flow visualization tools and mathematical modeling. Through this work, he has been examining the movement of non-aqueous phase liquids and colloids in porous and fractured media. He has other research efforts directed toward well head protection, flow through heterogeneous media, and the geological characterization of aquifers. Wilson has written for many publications and is a member of a variety of professional committees and panels.

Wilson delivered his lecture at 37 universities and delivered the Darcy lecture as the keynote address at the AGWSE General Membership Meeting at the National Convention in Las Vegas.

1991 — Stephen Wheatcraft

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"Fractal Approaches to Modeling Geologic Variability in Aquifers" was the topic of the lecture presented by Stephen Wheatcraft, Ph.D. Wheatcraft has more than 17 years experience in the field of hydrogeology and transport in porous media. He has been published in more than 30 scientific publications in the areas of contaminant transport in aquifers and soils, hydrogeophysics, island/costal hydrogeology, and numerical and laboratory modeling of sea water intrusion. He currently holds the position of associate research professor of Hydrogeology at the Water Resources Center of the Desert Research Institute. He received an M.S. in 1976 and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics with specialization in hydrogeology from the University of Hawaii. His master's thesis involved laboratory modeling of sea water intrusion and liquid waste injection into island aquifers. His dissertation involved the numerical modeling of the same problem.

Wheatcraft lectured at 30 universities in 1991 and delivered the Darcy Lecture as the keynote address at the AGWSE General Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 1991.

1990 — Ralph C. Heath

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"Hydrogeology and Hazardous Waste Disposal" was the title of Ralph C. Heath's Darcy Lecture. Topics covered in the lecture included engineered solutions to waste disposal and a discussion of the hydrogeologic features, which, if properly considered and utilized, may help avoid the problems that have resulted from past disposal practices. Heath spent 34 years working for the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Resources Division and since 1986 has practiced as a self-employed consulting hydrogeologist. As a consultant, he is involved in projects ranging from groundwater pollution caused by power plant ash ponds to determining the yield of the unconfined aquifer at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. He also holds the position of lecturer at Duke University, where he teaches both regular and intensive courses in basic groundwater hydrology.

Heath delivered the keynote address to the AGWSE General Membership at the NWWA National Meeting in Anaheim, California, in September 1990, and 22 universities in the United States and Canada.

1989 — Randy L. Bassett

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"The Utility of Chemical Modeling, With and Without Advection, in Natural and Environmentally Stressed Hydrologic Systems" was the title of the Darcy Lecture presented by Randy L. Bassett, Ph.D. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1977, his career has been diverse. He has been actively involved in government research projects, university research, the private sector, and began his own research consulting firm. In 1987, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology, as an associate professor, where he is involved with research projects in aqueous chemical modeling, stable isotope geochemistry, organic and trace metal waste migration studies of mining activities, and brine modeling in sedimentary basins.

Bassett lectured at 19 universities and delivered the keynote address to the AGWSE National General Membership Meeting at the NWWA Annual Convention in Houston, Texas, in 1989.

1988 — Thomas A. Prickett

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"Practical Aspects of Ground Water Modeling" was the topic of Thomas A. Prickett's Darcy Lecture Series. Prickett lectured throughout the world and consulted in almost every state in the United States. He was widely renowned in the scientific community for his work with groundwater models. After receiving a degree in engineering, he began his career with the Illinois State Water Survey before becoming a consultant. He established his own firm, Thomas A. Prickett and Associates, in 1981.

Prickett delivered his Darcy lecture to 16 universities and was the AGWSE keynote speaker at the NWWA Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1988.

1987 — John A. Cherry

"Contaminant Migration Processes: A Field Perspective" was the topic of the first Henry Darcy Lecture presented by John Cherry, Ph.D., professor, University of Waterloo. For the past 17 years, his research interests have focused on field studies of contaminant migration processes by way of investigations of active or inactive waste disposal or spill sites, controlled field experiments with emphasis on both physical and geochemical processes, and development of monitoring systems to better elucidate processes at the field scale. He has been active as a consultant to various government agencies and corporations in the United States and Canada.

Cherry lectured at 16 universities in the United States and Canada, and delivered his Darcy lecture to the AGWSE General Membership as the keynote address at the NGWA National Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1987.

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