Media release: World water experts to meet in Sydney
Four of the world’s leading authorities on global and regional water issues will gather in Sydney next week (Jan 23-27) to advise on Australia’s groundwater research and training needs.
The four experts are members of the International Scientific Advisory Committee of Australia’s National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NGCRT).
“This is a critical time for groundwater,” says Centre Director Professor Craig Simmons. “Aquifers are being depleted or polluted all around the world. In Australia it is one of our most precious and neglected resources, and will affect the future of many of our cities, industries, agriculture, mining and communities. Groundwater must be front and centre in our water debates in this nation.”
“Our expert advisory group consists of scientists with a deeper understanding of the water issue and its challenges than almost anyone – we’re very lucky to have such highly knowledgeable people helping the centre and Australia. It will help put us at the world cutting edge in the cdentury of water scarcity. These experts are truly among the top scholars in water research, science and policy internationally .”
The four experts are:
Professor Ghislain de Marsily, a world-renowned hydrogeologist who holds the position of Emeritus Professor at Pierre & Marie Curie University (UPMC) in Paris, France. He is known as one of the world’s experts on surface and underground water, and is the originator of the idea of ‘hydrogeological national parks’ to help protect the world’s dwindling supplies of groundwater.
Professor Edward Sudicky, Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and an expert on quantitative hydrogeology, the modelling of surface and groundwater systems and the transport of contaminants in water. His scientific papers are cited in the world’s top 0.5% per cent.
Dr Leonard F. Konikow, who has worked as a research hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey since 1972. Dr Konikow’s research interests include the development and application of solute transport models for the study of groundwater contamination problems. Dr Konikow is recognised as a world leader in groundwater hydrology and in groundwater modelling.
Professor Robert F.Glennon is the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He is the author of the highly-acclaimed Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters (Island Press, 2002). His latest book, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, was published in April 2009. He is this year’s NCGRT Distinguished Guest Lecturer.