NGWA member Michael Campana, Ph.D., passed away on August 25 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was 76.
Campana was a professor emeritus in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. He came to OSU in 2009 to direct its Institute for Water and Watersheds after a long and successful career at the University of New Mexico’s water resources program.
His specialties were hydrogeology, hydrophilanthropy, and water resources. His research interests included transboundary groundwater resources; integrated and sustainable water resources management; water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) in developing regions; regional hydrogeology; and science-policy interface.
Campana was active in NGWA for years. He served on the NGWA Board of Directors from 2002-2005 and was on the NGWA Foundation Board of Directors from 2014-2017. He was also a part of numerous committees, volunteering for groups such as the Government Affairs Committee, the Membership Standing Committee, and the Darcy Lecture Series Task Force.
He also served as an associate editor for NGWA’s technical journal, Groundwater®, and was the journal’s guest editor when it did a special focus issue on transboundary groundwater in 2005. Campana was honored with NGWA’s Keith E. Anderson Award in 2005, which acknowledges outstanding contributions to NGWA.
Campana was also active with the American Water Resources Association. He served on its board of directors from 2008-2012 and was the AWRA president in 2011.
He founded and served as president of the Ann Campana Judge Foundation, an organization involved with WaSH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) in Central America. It is named for his sister who died tragically on September 11, 2001, as she was aboard American Airlines flight 77 which was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
WaSH was a passion of his as was hydrophilanthropy. At NGWA’s Groundwater Week in 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, Campana was part of the opening ceremony, taking part in H2O Talks that were designed to be inspiring, brief, and informative. The title of Campana’s talk was “Hydrophilanthropy: What Can You Do?”
In recent years, Campana published the popular blog, WaterWired, which was described as all things freshwater: news, comment, publications, and analysis.
Click here to read more about Campana’s career.