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University of Illinois professor wins National Ground Water Association’s top science award

(WESTERVILLE, OH — September 28, 2011) Craig M. Bethke, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois has received the National Ground Water Association’s 2011 M. King Hubbert Award for major science contributions to the knowledge of groundwater.

Bethke is the R.E. Grim Professor in the Department of Geology at UI.

“Professor Bethke is an outstanding hydrogeologist who has produced pure and applied research of the very highest international standard,” wrote his nominator, Professor James Best, chair of the UI Geology Department Awards Committee. Best said the “most remarkable” aspect of Bethke’s career is that he “reinvents his research program periodically by setting off in new intellectual directions.”

Early in his career, Bethke became the leading authority on basin-scale groundwater flow, culminating in the development of Basin2, a standard software program used by researchers at hundreds of colleges, universities, and corporations worldwide.

Bethke subsequently became a world leader in the study of geochemical reaction-path modeling, developing a widely used suite of computer programs called The Geochemist’s Workbench®.

He later turned direction again, studying microbial metabolism as it relates to groundwater/rock reactions. This resulted in more computer modeling programs and the book, Geochemical and Biogeochemical Reaction Modeling.

Bethke also is a leading authority on the life of the award’s namesake, M. King Hubbert — the American researcher whose pioneering work in the 1950s gained prominence and, in Bethke’s words, “went on to become the greatest geophysicist of all time.”

The award will be presented November 30 at NGWA’s 2011 Ground Water Expo and Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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NGWA, a nonprofit organization composed of U.S. and international groundwater professionals — contractors, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, and engineers — is dedicated to advancing groundwater knowledge. NGWA’s vision is to be the leading groundwater association that advocates the responsible development, management, and use of water.

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