NMT Hydrology Program Research

Faculty Research Areas

Penelope Boston's research includes caves, karst systems, geomicrobiology, extremophile organisms, geobiochemical cycling, astrobiology, robotic and human exploration of other planets, comparative planetology, and evolutionary implications of conjoined organic/cybernetic devices.

Rob Bowman's research interests center on contaminant chemistry and transport in soils, the vadose zone, and groundwater. His current program emphasizes alteration of surface chemistry in natural porous media, stimulation of microbial destruction of contaminants, and applications of tracer techniques to saturated and unsaturated zone investigations. Most of his research has a strong laboratory or field component.

Jan Hendrickx's research deals with the hydrology of the vadose zone. The hydrological processes in this zone determine, to a large extent, the vulnerability of groundwater to contamination and the amount of fresh water available for aquifer recharge. His research emphasizes uniform and preferential flow processes in the vadose zone, application of shallow geophysical methods for non-invasive measurements, groundwater recharge, and evaluation of regional water balances using GIS and remote sensing. He is the principal investigator on the EPSCoR Project where the main objectives are to establish active remote sensing applications in hydrology, and to establish hydrological databases for both scientists and non-scientist public users.

Mark Person's work is focused on numerical modeling of groundwater flow and transport processess at the sedimentary basin scale. Applications of his work focus on the role of groundwater in geologic processes, climate change hydrogeology and paleohydrology, geothermal systems, and fault hydrogeology.

Fred Phillips' work is focused on isotope hydrology and geochemistry. He is a leading scientist in the application of 36Cl dating for geologic, climatologic and hydrologic analysis. He is involved in the dating of landforms, the analysis of recharge through the vadose zone, groundwater flow patterns in deep basins, and reconstruction of paleohydrologic fluctuations using stable isotopes in lacustrine sediments.

Enrique Vivoni’s interests include surface hydrology, watershed hydrometeorology, ecohydrology and new techniques in hydrology (modeling, remote sensing, GIS). His current interests are focused surface hydrology in semi-arid landscapes and its interaction with climate variability and ecosystem change. Large-scale modeling, observation and remote sensing of river basin hydrology is currently a primary research area.

John Wilson studies fluid flow and transport in permeable media, using field and laboratory experiments and mathematical models. This includes studies of the movement of water, non-aqueous phase liquids, dissolved chemicals, colloids, and bacteria through porous, fractures and faulted material. Other research is directed toward well-head protection, estimation methods to find the source of observed groundwater contamination, flow through heterogeneous media, and the geological characterization of aquifers.