Biography:

I have always been interested in the earth sciences (this is due, in part, to my upbringing in northern New Mexico, where natural land abounds and settlements are few). Because of these interests, I began my career as a young scientist at Whitman College, a small college in Washington State, where I earned a bachelors degree in geology. I also spent a number of summers researching various factors that influence climate in Los Alamos, NM. These experiences gave me a broad background in the earth sciences. However, as time passed, my interests honed in on surface hydrology, especially as it relates to climate and physical landscape characteristics. I decided to move back to the southwest to pursue these interests at the U of A. Currently, I am involved with the Surface Hydrology Group, which deals with hillslope, catchment, and river basin hydrology.

Research:

My field research site is located in the Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico. This area provides a good laboratory to study water movement through hillslopes because of the wide variety of geomorphic and hydrologic conditions within the study site. I will be using stable isotope data as well as streamflow data to better understand hydrologic response to various inputs. So far, a number of monitoring instruments have been installed, including pressure transducers, temperature probes, and snowmelt lysimeters. The final goal of the project is to construct a useful hillslope-scale model, which will yield information about residence times in the area.

Biography:

I am a PhD candidate at the Hydrology and Water Resources department and minoring in Soil Sciences. I hold a M. Sc degree from the same department that I finished in Spring 2005. For my master degree I studied the effects of wild fire on watershed hydrologic response in a semi arid basin. In 2000 I earned a geological engineering degree (equiv. to M.Sc.) with a major in hydrology from the School of Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

After my graduation in Barcelona, I spent one year working as a water and sanitation engineer for an international organization in the Sierraleoneese and Liberian refugee camps in Guinea-Conakry. I was involved in different activities such as: geophysical studies, boreholes for water supply (development & pumping tests), water distribution systems, wells, sanitation structures, etc. In 2002 I worked for a consulting firm in Barcelona, where I was strongly involved in the implementation project of the future desalination plant for the city of Barcelona. Hydrogeology and water management were the key issues of my consulting work.

Research:

I am currently working within a multidisciplinary Nasa funded project on "The role of Land-Cover change in Montane Mainland SE Asia (MMSEA) in altering regional and local hydrological processes under a changing climate". Currently, I am mainly working with the MMSEA project, however I will be working with in the Catalina field site in the near future.

Biography:

I graduated from the U of A in May of 2003 with Civil Engineering. During 2005, I worked with the company hydoGEOPHYSICS inc. in Tucson. While employed there, I used different geophysical methods, such as resistivity, to trace and map out contaminants that reside within certain groundwater.

Research:

I am interested in climate variability and its influence on the hydrological cycle. It will become increasingly more important that each regional ecosystem employs a sustainable approach to its water supply. I would love to try to implement a methodology catering to what is available and sustainable.

Biography:

I was born and raised in Bangalore, India, and I studied at the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India where I obtained a BE degree in Civil Engineering in 2004. The engineering degree did not satiate my hunger for knowledge and I decided to pursue further studies with the focus being Hydrology. I moved to University of Nevada, Reno in the Fall 2004 where I studied Hydrology and worked at the Desert Research Institute. Here I began narrowing my interests in Hydrology and started focusing more on surface water hydrology and modeling river systems. As part of my Master's Thesis I developed, applied and tested a coupled (MMS-PRMS and RiverWare) hydrologic model with the objective of streamflow prediction for the US Bureau of Reclamation, Lahontan Basin Area office. This project was part of the Reclamation, Water 2025 DOI initiative. Spring 2007 I moved here to Tucson to start work on my PhD.

Research:

My research interests are broadly in the area of surface water hydrology, hydrologic modeling for decision support, incorporating remotely sensed data for the purpose of parameter estimation and investigating the impact of climate change in hydrologic predictions. These small pieces of the puzzle are needed to focus on water policy issues which are also of interest to me.

My current research is for the Salt River Project (SRP). I will be developing and evaluating a hydrologic model for the Salt and the Verde River near Phoenix, AZ. The research will have two main agendas; 1) development of a water balance model for the Salt and Verde Rivers, 2) Impacts of water policy in Arizona on water use and transfers.

Biography:

In the beginning of January 2008 I arrived in Tucson to start my PhD. Originally, I come from Germany where I earned my diploma degree in hydrology at the University of Freiburg. My interest in hydrology began in 1999 (just after I finished high school) when I accidentally discovered that it actually exists. So I started my studies in 2000. In 2003 I was so lucky to be able to spend a whole year in Christchurch / New Zealand studying abroad at the University of Canterbury. There, I focused mainly on snow and ice hydrology and went on many field trips into the gorgeous country side (for educational reasons only!). In 2007 I finally graduated as a hydrologist with minors in geology and physical geography. Since then I worked in Madrid for the European Union WADE project (Flooding and Water Recharge of Alluvial Aquifers in dryland Environments) and had the chance to experience real drylands when I was working as a hydrogeologist in Namibia.

Research:

Up until now, my main interest in the field of hydrology was the interaction of surface water and groundwater, especially in arid regions. In my diploma thesis I investigated groundwater recharge from flash floods in ephemeral streams. In the future, my focus will turn to the Catalina Mountains, where a catchment is waiting to be examined in terms of its response to hydrological stressing. I am looking forward to do that.

Biography:

I was born and raised in Cúcuta (Colombia). I obtained my Civil Engineer degree from Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá) in 1996, after some jobs as private consultant I was awarded within the University-Corporation Program at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia) where I graduated as M.C.E in water resources area (1999); after that, I returned to Cúcuta and became faculty at Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander in Fluids and Thermal Department. In 2007 I was awarded with the Fulbright - Colciencias - DNP scholarship to study for a PhD degree in Hydrology at University of Arizona.

Research:

My research interests are related with surface hydrology and using models in ungauged watersheds. I joint the Surface Water Hydrology Group in August, 2007, and I will be working in a catchment classification and hydrologic similarity project, particularly from a bottom-up approach.

Biography:

I started undergrad as an engineering major but was wooed into international studies after spending a year abroad traveling in South America. After college I worked in Nicaragua for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), an international NGO, for three and a half years. While there I became interested in water issues as I witnessed the crippling effects that the lack of adequate water resources can have on the basic health and economic security of a household and community. After the stint in Nicaragua I transferred to ADRA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, MD where I worked as a grant manager for four years. While in Maryland I completed a M.S.A in International Development from Andrews University.

My experiences dealing with water related problems faced by communities around the world pushed me to decide to return to school in the fall of 2008 to pursue a master’s degree in hydrology.

Research:

My research will focus on investigating multiple approaches in climate predictive capacity for the 2-5 year time frame. One approach will be to investigate the impact that the Pacific and Atlantic Decadal Oscillations have on the Southwest. Another will be to extend previous research done on a 12-month basin specific climate prediction model by Matt Switanek (who is also in the water group) to the 2-5 year time frame.

The purpose of my research is to better equip water managers with information which will enable them to make timely and informed decisions regarding the availability of water resources in the 2-5 year time frame.

Biography:

I grew up in Chicago and received my bachelor’s degree from the forestry department of Southern Illinois University prior to entering the HWR master’s program in the fall of 2008. While at SIU, I worked closely with faculty on projects related to various effects of land management on water resources. During that time I gained an appreciation for the complexity of hydrologic systems and processes, and decided to continue exploring these topics as a graduate student.

Research:

My exposure to the connection between land-use/land-cover and water resources as an undergraduate has spawned an interest in further understanding the role of vegetation in surface and subsurface hydrologic processes. In this context, I hope undertake research, which takes advantage of the diversity of ecosystems in the Tucson area and the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains.

Biography:

I received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (ME) from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO in 1999. Over the course of the past decade, I have applied my ME degree to research in the field of atmospheric science remote sensing and GIS modeling as well as environmental consulting focusing on water quality and wetland restoration projects. These experiences helped me develop a broad background of atmosphere-biosphere and hydrosphere-biosphere interactions and a love of biogeochemical cycles. They also solidified my desire to develop a scientific mind through research focusing on the common thread of these areas, water. This led me to the Troch Surface Hydrology Group in the spring of 2009 to pursue a Master’s Degree.

Research:

My research is focused on the seasonal and spatial variations in soil chemistry of mountain blocks and hill slopes. The majority of chemical weathering studies have focused on long term contributions on nearly level landscapes (Yoo et. al, 2007) with little attention paid to the higher complexity of heterogeneous hill slopes. Water is the universal solvent and the driving force behind the dissolution/precipitation states of minerals and the transport of ions, organic matter, and other solutes within the soil matrix. Chemical weathering reactions directly impact the water quality of streams and down slope aquifers (Troch and Chorover, 2008). Studies conducted at paired hill slope field sites of granite and schist parent materials set at three positions along the elevation gradient of the Santa Catalina Mountains may provide insight into the precipitation and temperature driven processes underlying contemporary chemical weathering of mountain blocks.

Biography:

I came to Tucson from Santa Barbara, CA specifically to study hydrology at the University of Arizona. In December of 2007 I received my B.S. in Hydrology & Water Resources. During my undergraduate career I worked as a student hydrologist in the USGS Arizona Water Science Center. While at the AZWSC I gained a great deal of field experience in geophysics, groundwater monitoring, and various methods. In the office I developed my skills in software, data management and analysis. Prior to working with the AZWSC, I worked for the U of A Laboratory of Tree Ring Research collecting field data for fire ecology studies in southern Arizona.

Research:

My current research diverges somewhat from my past experiences of in-stream hydrology and recharge. It focuses on water and energy exchange between the atmosphere and land surface. The site in which I am working is in northern New Mexico at the Valles Caldera National Preserve where an extensive hydrologic and meteorologic monitoring network provides data to look at these relationships. I am also interested in the contribution of snow to the water budget. I find a great deal of interest in developing new field techniques for quantifying hydrologic parameters and applying my math skills to hydrologic models.

Biography:

I was born in Casale Monferrato (Italy) and I studied Civil Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin, Italy. I graduated in the 2006 with a thesis on the statistical characteristics of measured and predicted precipitation at global and continental scale, made in collaboration with Duke University. At the beginning of 2007, I started my PhD in Hydrology at the Politecnico di Torino (Department of Hydraulics and IdrAm-Water and Environmental Research Center).

Research:

My main research interests are related to surface hydrology and in particular to prediction in ungauged basins. Until now, I worked on statistical methods for streamflow estimation with particular regard to regionalization procedures.