Young Hydrologic Society

A –Streams of Thought– contribution by Kevin Roche.

In our inaugural Hallway Conversations article we have the pleasure of learning about the most recent AGU Chapman Conference through the eyes of its principal organizer, Jaime Gómez-Hernández (JGH), a professor of hydrogeology from the Universidad Poletécnica de Valencia. Together with the Chapman planning committee, Professor Gómez-Hernández brought researchers from around the world together for a week of presentations, discussions and activities in his native Valencia, Spain. “The MADE Challenge for Groundwater Transport in Highly Heterogeneous Aquifers” highlighted current understanding and future needs to address the growing threat of aquifer contamination. Discussions centered on the Macrodispersion Experiment (MADE) Site, located on the Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, USA. Thirty years of experiments and site characterization have made it one of the most intensively-studied aquifers in the world; and although its sampling wells are no longer in place, MADE’s rich datasets are still used to test novel groundwater modeling theory.

Figure 1: Jaime Gomez-Hernandez at the reigns of the 2015 Chapman Conference

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Contribution by Kevin Roche.

Hydrology is a broad field for good reason. I began this article after telescoping through a series of cited articles for two hours, moving from a review of bacterial biofilms to a paper on complex networks. We rely on scores of different specialties to connect our measurements to theory. Yet, if we ever hope to establish our academic autonomy, young hydrologists are tasked with digging in. For me, this “broadening-specialization dualism” is frustrating, perhaps because it forces me to admit (1) hydrology is far from being solved, and (2) I need an immense amount of help connecting my work to the big picture. Continue reading →