Martha Whitaker wins a National Advising Award

The National Academics Advising Association has name Martha Whitaker as their Outstanding New Advisor for 2010. The honor is well deserved for Martha.

Some background on why she won this award-

Martha has served as the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources academic advisor for the undergraduate program for just over two years. At first she assisted Don Davis and then later by herself after he died from complications of cancer. In her role Martha has been simply superlative. Our undergraduate program has grown from 8 to 44 students.

Her excellence is not simply a function of the growth she has overseen however. Students in the program are enthusiastic about their futures and about the department. This enthusiasm has been encouraged and stoked by Martha’s dynamic personality and her passion for hydrology. She has also been a careful mentor to undergraduate students. Even as she has been successful at increasing majors in our department Martha has discouraged students from the major who simply do not have the background or would be better served in other majors. Still the students she has recruited are diverse in life and educational background and they are generally hard working and meet the caliber of undergraduates the department has traditionally had. Several undergraduates have indicated to me that Martha’s advising is detailed and important. According to them her advising has changed the course of their lives not just by encouraging them to major in Hydrology but also by encouraging them to get work and research experience. These experiences have proven critical as they have sought work in the field and pursued their careers.

Martha has been a truly excellent adviser and deserves the national recognition she has received for her superlative work.

Stephen Osborn - Best TA 2010 in UA College of Science

Members of the department have done a great job this year in garnering awards for their excellent work. One recent awardee was Stephen Osborn a PhD student who has been a TA for introduction to Hydrology. Stephen was honored as the best TA in the College of Science in 2009. The award was in part for his excellent efforts at TA'ing introduction to hydrology.

Stephen's research interest broadly consist of utilizing elemental and isotopic analyses of multiple substrates (gas, rock, and formation water) to address fundamental questions of fluid and solute migration, biogeochemistry of solutes and radionuclides, microbial processes, and diagenetically induced water-rock reactions in subsurface environments. This research could have important implications for understanding the chemical evolution of deep seated formation waters as ore forming fluids, controls on microbial processes (e.g., methanogenesis and sulfate reduction), and large scale fluid migration during orogenesis. With his TA ward and a post-doc lined up at Duke University on carbon sequestration Stephen appears to have a bright future ahead.


Stephen already has his super-hero persona selected -

Hydrogeo man-

Former UA Hydrology Professor on Colbert

Last Night Brenda Ekwurzel a former professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources was on the Colbert Report for a "Science Catfight" with Joe Bastardi of Accu-Weather over why can't meterologists and climate scientists agree on the cause of global warming. Brenda does well in holding up her half of the fight. See for yourself-

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Science Catfight - Joe Bastardi vs. Brenda Ekwurzel
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Wednesday April 7 Seminar - Larry Winter

Today's HWR seminar will be given by Larry Winter.

"A Reduced Complexity Model for Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Groundwater Contamination"

Abstract:

I'll discuss a model of reduced complexity for assessing the risk of groundwater pollution from a point-source that Daniel Tartakovsky and I have been developing. An important feature of the model is that it's based on observable parameters like solute concentration at an observation well. The progress of contamination is represented as a sequence of transitions among coarsely resolved states corresponding to simple statements like "a spill has occurred", "natural attenuation has failed", etc. Transitions between states are modeled as a Markov jump process. This introduces the element of time in the state transition model which is missing in many risk assessment models. A general expression for the probability of aquifer contamination is obtained. I'll discuss the assumptions the model is based on and the data it requires, and I'll apply the model to a simple example to illustrate the method and fix ideas. I'll also say something about the uses of models, and the restrictions that sparse data imposes on them, to motivate the usefulness of reduced models.

Galileo Circle Scholars

Congratulations to David Bernard (undergraduate) and Andrew Somor (graduate) for being selected by the College of Science as 2010 Galileo Circle Scholars!

The Galileo Circle is a society of individuals who support excellence in the sciences at the University of Arizona. The scholarships for HWR students were made possible through the generous support of Galileo Circle members Charles and Elena d'Autremont. David and Andrew will each receive a $1,000 scholarship award and are invited to attend the Galileo Circle Celebration dinner with Circle members and patrons later this month. Congratulations and well done!

El Dia Del Agua winners

Last week, March 31st, was the annual El Dia del Agua. This annual student research conference is a tradition in the department. It is an opportunity for students to see what everyone is doing. It also a day for socializing and discussing everyone's favorite Aristotelian element water. As part of the days festivities awards are handed out for best oral and poster presentations. This years winners were -

Montgomery Prize $2,000 ~ Best Oral Presentation

Erika L. Gallo

Hargis Awards $1,000 ~ First Place Poster

Phoolendra Kumar Mishra

Hargis Awards $400 ~ Second Place Poster

Andrew K. Borden

Hydrology & Water Resources Awards $400 ~ Best Speaker

Matthew Narter

Hydrology & Water Resources Awards $400 ~ Best Poster

Andrew Neal

Donald R. Davis Undergraduate with Distinction Award $400

Philip Calabrese

More to follow in the next several weeks about these winners and their presentations.

Five Questions for Dave Kreamer

In preparation for Wednesday March 31st's El Dia Del Agua, it seemed like a good idea to ask our keynote speaker - David Kreamer of the University of Nevada Las Vegas our 5 questions for hydrologists. Dave is an alum of the dpeartment receiving his MS in 1976 and his PhD in 1984 (I guess he just could not get enough). So without further ado here are Dave's answers.

1. Why the Dept of Hydrology and Water Resources?

I was rock climbing in the Catalina Mountains outside Tucson, and began conversing with another climber on a parallel route next to me. I told him that I was an undergraduate in Microbiology, minor chemistry (pre-med), but I was thinking more about the out-of-doors for a job choice. The climber, a guy named Ted Petronoff, said he was in hydrology, and he was doing work in the Grand Canyon on water quality. And by the way, there was a high amount of Shigella, (a type of bacteria that can cause digestive problems) in a side drainage to the Canyon, Kanab Creek, and would I be interested in rafting down the Colorado River taking water quality samples? After a couple of milliseconds thought, I said "sure", and asked him the name of his major professor in the Dept.

The next week I was in an office in the Hydro Dept. It didn't hurt that the U of Arizona has the best dept. in hydrology in the nation, and I am constantly happy about the circumstances, professors and people that shaped my career and life. I am grateful for the experiences, fellowship and training I received at Arizona.

2) Best hydrologic insight you have ever had?

I have several favorite hydrologic insights. As an invited, independent peer reviewer for Yucca Mountain I discovered that politically driven science wasn't always optimal. With the encouragement of Stan Davis, I offered suggestions for improvement of the scientific studies beng conducted. At a low level nuclear waste site in South Carolina I found out that I could make gaseous tracer tests work and be able to be modeled in the vadose zone. With the advice of Paul Hsieh, I put forward a gaseous diffusion model for those tracer tests, which in a strange way was analogous to the inverse, curve-match Theis equation. In the Grand Canyon I found that high uranium concentrations we discovered in spring water, coupled with unusual uranium disequilibrium ratios and other groundwater tracer values could start a major Superfund cleanup. And in Africa I realized that the quality of human life and ecosystem health could be advanced in some basic ways I didn't learn about in school.

3) Favorite thing about being a hydrologist?

My favorite thing about being a hydrologist is to do such varied work involving travel to new places, making a difference in the lives of others, figuring out hydrologic intellectual riddles, working in the lab, modeling on all scales, teaching, and being in beautiful outdoor areas. My favorite thing about being a professor is working with students - they're the best!

4. Why hydrophilanthropy?

I think every hydrologist I've met is proud that in some way they are working for the advancement of the world. For me, hydrophilanthropy is a way to extend academic studies to real-world and immediate, human and ecosystem benefit, while at the same time seeing the world through different eyes and fundamentally challenging you own pre-conceptions about the planet.

5) Favorite thing about Tucson?

I love Tucson and it's hard to choose. My favorite thing about Tucson perhaps might be some quiet, not-often-visited, pools in the polished granite canyons of the Santa Catalina Mountains where you can swim and linger next to saguaro forests.