Tissa H. Illangasekare

 

Dr. Illangasekare is the AMAX distinguished chair of environmental sciences and engineering and a professor of civil engineering at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). He is also the director of the Center for the Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes (CESEP) located at CSM. He received BS (honors) in Civil Engineering from University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) in 1971,  M.Eng. in Water Resources and Hydrology from  the Asian Institute of Technology in 1974 and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University (CSU) in 1978. He was a faculty member at CSU, Louisiana State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, prior to  joining CSM. His expertise is in mathematical and numerical modeling of flow and transport in porous and fractured media, unsaturated and saturated zone processes, surface-subsurface interaction, snow hydrology, multiphase flow, aquifer remediation, and physical modeling of flow and transport in laboratory test tanks. He is a registered professional engineer, registered professional hydrologist, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the Hydrology editor of Earth Science Review and serves on the editorial boards of Water Resource Research, Journal of Hydrology, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, and Vadose Zone Journal.

 

 

Robert R. Twilley

 

Dr. Twilley is professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science and director of the Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute at Louisiana State University.  Most of Dr. Twilley's research has focused on coastal wetlands both in the Gulf of Mexico, throughout Latin America, and in the Pacific Islands. Dr. Twilley has published over 80 articles including the 1999 co-edited book The Biogeochemistry of Gulf of Mexico Estuaries, several documents on global climate change, and edited a two-volume report with 63 other authors entitled Coastal Louisiana Ecosytem Assessment and Restoration (CLEAR) Model of Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Comprehensive Ecosystems Restoration PlanHe was recently selected as Distinguished Professor in Louisiana Environmental Studies at LSU; and was the recipient of the 2000 Distinguished Professor Award at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he was the director of the Center for Ecology and Environmental Technology. Dr. Twilley received his PhD in 1982 in plant and systems ecology from the University of Florida, and performed his post-doc study at University of Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. Presently Dr. Twilley is member of the Science and Technology Working Group that is developing a comprehensive restoration plan for the Louisiana Coastal Area. His current focus is the development of ecosystem models, both conceptual and simulation, to forecast the rehabilitation of coastal and wetland ecosystems.

 

Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute

Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science

Louisiana State University

Baton Rouge, LA        70803

 

Cell phone:                   225  279 0353

 

WBI Telephone:           (225) 578-8806

FAX                            (225) 578- 6423

Email (Office):          rtwilley@lsu.edu

 

William W-G Yeh


Professor Yeh is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his BS in Civil Engineering from the National Chen-Kung University, Taiwan, in 1961; his MS in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University in 1964; and his PhD from Stanford University in 1967. He has been on the UCLA faculty since 1967. His research interests include groundwater modeling, inverse problems of parameter structure identification, and the development of methodologies and models for optimizing large-scale water resources systems. In 1989, he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert E. Horton Award. In 1993, the AGU elected him a Fellow. In 1994, he received the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Julian Hinds Award. In 1996, he was elected an Honorary Member of ASCE. Finally, in 1999, Dr. Yeh was awarded the Warren A. Hall Medal from the Universities Council on Water Resources. In the past, he has served as an Associate Editor of Water Resources Research and Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management as well as Editor of JWRPM.

 

 

Prabhakar Clement

 

Dr. Prabhakar Clement is an associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.  Before to joining Auburn University, Dr. Clement worked as a senior research engineer at the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, for over six years (1994-1999) and later worked as a senior lecturer at the Center for Water Research, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, for three years (1999-2002).  Dr. Clement received his BS (1993) and MS (1985) degrees in Physics from Madras University and Madurai University, respectively; M.Tech. degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (in 1987), Bombay, India; and PhD in Civil Engineering from Auburn University, USA (in 1993).  He is a registered profession civil engineer.  His research interests include analysis of flow and reactive transport in groundwater systems, analysis of density coupled flow and variably saturated flow, laboratory-scale visualization of porous media flow, modeling and management of environmental remediation processes mediated by microbial systems, and design of natural attenuation and active bioremediation systems.  Dr. Clement has published over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles, 4 book chapters, and over 25 conference papers in the area of environmental engineering.  He serves on the editorial board of the ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering and is a member of ASCE’s Groundwater Hydrology and Groundwater Quality committees.   Dr. Clement is the lead author of the US Department of Energy's public domain bioremediation model RT3D.  He is also one of the co-authors of the US EPA’s natural attenuation design tool BIOCHLOR.  For further details, please visit: http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/clemept/.

 

Scott W. Tyler

 

Scott Tyler is a Professor of Hydrogeology at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and outgoing Director of the University’s Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences.  He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1978, his Masters in Hydrogeology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1983 and his Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1991. He was a research scientist at Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Desert Research Institute prior to joining UNR in 1991. His research expertise ranges from vadose zone hydrology with an emphasis on ground water recharge and paleoclimate reconstruction from soil tracer profiles , experimental, field and numerical simulation of variable density fluid flow in porous media and field and numerical simulation of land surface energy budgets.  He also serves as the faculty advisor to UNR’s Student Associate for International Water Issues (SAIWI) and has led SAIWI work trips drilling and repairing village level water systems in Ghana, Haiti and Chile.  Dr. Tyler is a fellow of Geologic Society of America (GSA) and Soil Science Society of America. He also serves as the incoming Hydrogeology Division chair of the GSA. Dr. Tyler is editor of Water Resources Research and has also served on the editorial boards of Groundwater, Hydrogeology Journal and Soil and Tillage Research. 

 

Kevin J. Cunningham

 

Dr. Cunningham is a research hydrogeologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Florida Science Research Center for Water and Restoration Studies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He received his BS in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, MS in Geology from Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, PhD from the University of Kansas-Lawrence, and performed his post-doctoral study at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida. His subsurface geologic experience includes eight years as a petroleum exploration geologist with Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas. His recent research interests include conducting a long-term study to characterize the hydrogeology and hydraulic properties of the karst Biscayne aquifer in southeastern Florida by integrating high-resolution cyclostratigraphic techniques, ground-penetrating radar and seismic methods, and borehole geophysical tools; including borehole-flowmeter measurements and quantification of vuggy porosity using digital borehole images. Other research includes applying a conceptual model of karst porosity he has developed for the southeastern Florida Biscayne aquifer to evaluating core and field-scale microbiological transport in ground water for the assessment of the vulnerability of a major southeastern Florida utility well field to pathogen contamination. He is a registered professional geologist and the member of two technical groups involved in a 30-year plan for the restoration of the Florida everglades.

 

Rien Van Genuchten

 

Rien Van Genuchten is a Senior Research Soil Physicist and former Research Leader at the George E. Brown, Jr. Salinity Laboratory of the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Riverside California. He holds an MS degree in irrigation and drainage from Wageningen University in The Netherlands (1971), and a PhD in Soil Physics from New Mexico State University (1975).  He has published widely on vadose zone flow and transport processes, numerical and analytical modeling, development of computer software, characterization and measurement of the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties, preferential flow in macroporous soils and unsaturated fractured rock, and root water uptake. Dr. van Genuchten is a Fellow of AAAS, AGU, ASA, and SSSA, and was recognized as one of the original “Highly Cited Researchers” by the Institute of Scientific Information, ISI.  He holds an honorary degree from the University of Hannover, Germany, and earlier this year received the Dionys Stur Medal of Honor from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, for outstanding achievements in the natural sciences.  He is founding editor of Vadose Zone Journal, an on-line journal published by SSSA in cooperation with GSA.

 

Jayantha Obeysekera (`’Obey')

Jayantha Obeysekera is the Director of the Office of Modeling at the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).   He holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from University of Sri Lanka, M. Eng. in Hydrology from University of Roorkee, India, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with specialization in water resources from Colorado State University.  Prior to joining SFWMD, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University where he taught courses in the Hydrology and Water Resources area and conducted research in stochastic hydrology.  In addition, he has taught courses in the water resources area at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.  During his career, Dr. Obeysekera has published numerous research articles in refereed journals in the field of water resources.   Dr. Obeysekera has over 20 years of experience practicing water resources engineering with an emphasis on both stochastic and deterministic modeling.  He has taught short courses on modeling in the countries of Dominican Republic, Colombia, Spain, Sri Lanka, and U.S.  He was a former member of the Surface Runoff Committee of the American Geophysical Union and is currently serving as a member of a Federal Task Group on Hydrologic Modeling.

Karsten H. Jensen

 

Dr. Karsten H. Jensen is professor in hydrogeology at University of Copenhagen. He holds a MSc degree in civil engineering and a PhD degree in hydrology both from the Technical University of Copenhagen. He was a professor in hydrology at the Technical University of Denmark until 2002. Currently he is director of the International research Scholl of Water Resources (Fiva). In the period 1997-2001 he was president of the International Committee on Atmospheric-Soil-Vegetation Relations under the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). He has been co-convenor and co-editor for several international workshops and symposia and currently he serves as associate editor of Water Resources Research and Vadose Zone Journal. He has been involved in several international research and project activities and recently he has been member of missions in Zambia and Botswana regarding research and capacity building

 

 

Jagath Kaluarachchi

 

Prof. Kaluarachchi has been with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Utah Water Research Laboratory since 1990 and is current the head of the Water Engineering Program.  During this period, his research interests have been groundwater hydrology; analysis and modeling of subsurface contamination due to organic liquids, heavy metals, and agricultural pollutants; analysis of remedial technologies; risk assessment and decision analysis; stochastic subsurface hydrology; aquifer vulnerability assessment; and water resources analysis and management at the basin scale.  He has published over 55 manuscripts in reputed scientific journals plus over 100 numerous conference proceedings, participated in scientific presentations, gave invited seminars and short courses in the US, Middle East, and Asia.  Prof. Kaluarachchi is an active member of the ASCE and EWRI and currently serving as the Vice-Chair of the Watershed Council.

 

 

David W. Hyndman

 

 

David Hyndman is an Associate Professor in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geophysics at the Department of Geological Sciences at Michigan State University.  He has a Ph.D. and an M.S. degree in the area of hydrogeology  from Stanford University.  His research explores the physical and chemical processes that influence groundwater flow and solute transport, and the factors that affect seismic and electromagnetic wave propagation. He has combined multiple independent data sets, such as cross-well seismic travel times , hydraulic heads and tracer concentrations through three-dimensional numerical simulations, to estimate aquifer properties with high resolution. This provides information about the influence of these properties on groundwater flow, solute transport, and bioremediation of organic contaminants. Research also includes a variety of models to explore processes occurring in natural and anthropogenically altered systems.

 

Dr. Hyndman has received numerous awards for his work and has authored and/or co-authored many articles in referred journals.  He is also a co-author of the book, Natural Hazards and Disasters published in 2005.  Presently, he is the Associate Editor for the journals of Ground Water and Water Resources Research.  He is co-editor for SEPM Volume on Aquifer Characterization.