Lynn Gelhar
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Lynn Walter Gelhar (born 1936) is an American
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
focusing in
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...
and is currently professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is recognized for pioneering research in
stochastic Stochastic (; ) is the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. ''Stochasticity'' and ''randomness'' are technically distinct concepts: the former refers to a modeling approach, while the latter describes phenomena; i ...
subsurface In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bedro ...
hydrology, has leading research in the area of field-scale
contaminant Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that renders something unsuitable, unfit or harmful for the physical body, natural environment, wiktionary:Workplace, workplace, etc. Types of contamina ...
transport experiments, and has extensive experience on the hydrologic aspects of
nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...
disposal.


Background

Gelhar was born in 1936 in the central Wisconsin sand country (''
A Sand County Almanac ''A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There'' is a 1949 non-fiction book by American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Describing the land around the author's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin, the collection of essay ...
'') ''.'' He grew up in the small agricultural village of Oakfield, Wisconsin located at the foot of the
Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...
, graduating from Oakfield High School in 1954. He studied
Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, specializing at the graduate level in
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...
and
fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasma (physics), plasmas) and the forces on them. Originally applied to water (hydromechanics), it found applications in a wide range of discipl ...
, with minors in
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and
meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...
; his doctorate was completed in 1964. During his graduate study he also worked with the
Soil Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...
(
USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...
) on design of water control structures and at
Fairbanks-Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Founded in 1823 as a manufacturer of weighing scale, weighing scales, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinder ...
& Co. on large pumping systems for flood control and water supply projects. In 1964 he joined the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
) as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 1969. In 1973 he joined the faculty of the Geoscience Department at the
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech or NMT), formerly New Mexico School of Mines, is a public university in Socorro, New Mexico, United States. It offers over 30 Bachelor of Science degrees in technology, the scien ...
(NMT); as Professor of Hydrology he coordinated of the graduate program in
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...
. In 1983 he returned to
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
as full professor, and retired in 1996, becoming professor emeritus while continuing to direct graduate student research. Sabbatical leaves included visits at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
(1971),
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...
(1978), Ecole des Mines de Paris (1978),
Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university. Since 2018, KTH consist ...
(KTH, Stockholm) (1986),
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
(1986),
University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
and the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...
(Perth) (1987),
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a federally funded research and development center in the hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established in 1931 by the University of California (UC), the laboratory is spo ...
(1993) and
King Abdulaziz University King Abdulaziz University (KAU) () is a public research university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1967 as a private university by a group of businessmen led by Muhammad Bakhashab and including author Hamza Bogary, it was named after ...
(KAU), Jeddah, (2012).


Research

Gelhar is recognized as a leading authority on
stochastic Stochastic (; ) is the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. ''Stochasticity'' and ''randomness'' are technically distinct concepts: the former refers to a modeling approach, while the latter describes phenomena; i ...
subsurface In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bedro ...
hydrology. In 1982 he received the American Geophysical Union's Horton Award in recognition of his pioneering work in stochastic subsurface hydrology, in 1983 was elected a Fellow in the American Geophysical Union, cited particularly for work in stochastic methods, and in 1987 he was the recipient of the O. E. Meinzer Award by the Geological Society of America for three papers dealing with stochastic methods. He is the author of the textbook ''Stochastic Subsurface Hydrology''(1993), and has authored 160 technical publications. He has broad experience in fundamental and applied water-related research, but is best known for his theoretical work describing contaminant transport in naturally heterogenous aquifers using stochastic methods. He has also been instrumental in developing large-scale long-term field experiments designed to evaluate the new theoretical results, including field sites on Cape Cod, near Columbus, Mississippi, and a
vadose zone The vadose zone (from the Latin word for "shallow"), also termed the unsaturated zone, is the part of Earth between the land surface and the top of the phreatic zone, the position at which the groundwater (the water in the soil's pores) is at ...
site in the New Mexico desert near Las Cruces. His review of worldwide data on field-scale dispersion in aquifers is frequently cited in applied investigations aquifer contamination. His publications are widely cited, as reflected by his inclusion in the 2001 ISI Highly Cited list of scientists in Engineering and in Ecology/Environment. In Google Scholar he is credited with more than 16,000 citations, being the most highly cited individual in the field of Groundwater Hydrology.


Professional activities

Gelhar has experience in public service and consulting with government and industry on aspects of groundwater hydrology, dealing particularly with hazardous and nuclear waste issues. He has served on several multidisciplinary review teams, including groups reviewing environmental aspects of the
Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It has also been known as SiteW and the Hanford Nuclear R ...
in Washington, and the WIPP nuclear waste disposal site in New Mexico. At the WIPP site regional groundwater conditions may make the site susceptible to localized salt dissolution and associated features like breccia pipes and
sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
s, which could compromise the long-term stability of the site. Such uncertainties are intertwined with the complex politics of WIPP. For the nuclear weapons test site in
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, he chaired a panel reviewing groundwater modeling for that region of southwestern Nevada as part of an assessment of groundwater contamination effects from underground weapons testing. At the
Hanford site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It has also been known as SiteW and the Hanford Nuclear R ...
in Washington he was involved in hydrologic aspects of the high-level nuclear waste facility that was proposed in the
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
and was a member of a panel reviewing science and technology of Hanford environmental cleanup. At
Hanford Hanford may refer to: Places *Hanford (constituency), a constituency in Tuen Mun, People's Republic of China *Hanford, Dorset, a village and parish in England *Hanford, Staffordshire, England *Hanford, California, United States *Hanford, Iowa, ...
there is a unique threat to the long-term stability of waste disposal facilities associated with the potential for mega floods with water hundreds of meters deep sweeping over the site, as has happened repeatedly as recently as 13,000 years ago ( Missoula Floods). He was a member of a review group that assessed the groundwater conditions at the proposed
Yucca Mountain Yucca Mountain is a mountain in Nevada, near its border with California, approximately northwest of Las Vegas. Located in the Great Basin, Yucca Mountain is east of the Amargosa Desert, south of the Nevada Test and Training Range and in the ...
nuclear waste disposal site and has contributed a chapter to a book exploring uncertainties associated with Yucca Mountain. While on sabbatical leaves in France, Switzerland and Sweden he worked with scientists involved in the radioactive waste disposal programs in those countries, in Sweden preparing a report on flow and transport in fractured rocks for their agency dealing with radioactive waste disposal.


Honors and awards

*Charles V. Theis Award, “…outstanding contributions in ground-water hydrology.” *American Institute of Hydrology, 2017 *Distinguished Service Citation “…internationally recognized research and instructional program in water resources, groundwater hydrology…” *University of Wisconsin, College of Engineering, 1999 * O. E. Meinzer Award “…distinguished contributions in hydrogeology…three papers dealing with stochastic methods” *Geological Society of America, 1987 *AGU Fellow “…contributions to the science of groundwater hydrology and particularly for his application of stochastic methods in that field.” *American Geophysical Union, 1983 *Robert E. Horton Award “In recognition of his pioneering work in stochastic subsurface hydrology” *American Geophysical Union, 1982


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelhar, Lynn Living people MIT School of Engineering faculty 21st-century American engineers University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering alumni People from Oakfield, Wisconsin 1936 births