Dr. Gretchen Miller, assistant professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, has received a 2014 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her research in groundwater management.
The NSF awards the prestigious CAREER grants to outstanding junior faculty members to help them advance their research and teaching activities. Miller’s project, “Science for Sustainable and Resilient Groundwater Management,” will continue through May 2019.
“I am excited to be receiving the CAREER award,” said Miller. “Groundwater is a critical natural resource, particularly for the State of Texas, and it is important that we continue to develop smart ways of managing it, ones that balance economic, social, and environmental needs.
“In the near future, population growth and increased urbanization will have large impacts on our consumption of groundwater while climate change will affect its supply in uncertain ways. It is critical that we have both the scientific tools to help inform our decision making and the professionals trained to address these issues in a holistic fashion.”
The research in Miller’s project has three specific goals. The first is to improve the detection and modeling of groundwater dependent ecosystems, such as those associated with springs, riparian areas, and deep-rooted vegetation. The second is to test and create improved metrics for quantifying sustainability and resilience of groundwater resources, which would be applied to ratings systems similar to LEED certification for buildings.
The project will then explore management strategies for optimizing groundwater withdrawals to reduce impacts on ecosystems and prevent water system failures; new methods for improved timing and location of pumping, as well as aquifer storage and recovery, will be developed.
Along with these research aims, the project will address the teaching of sustainable engineering practices across the civil engineering curriculum and offer new continuing education opportunities for groundwater managers, consultants, and policy makers.
Miller received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California-Berkeley in 2009 and joined the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M the same year. Her teaching and research interests include groundwater, ecohydrology, vadose zone hydrology, groundwater-soil-plat atmosphere interactions, and Earth systems modeling.
The NSF established the CAREER program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development, combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality in the broadest sense. Through this program, the NSF emphasizes the importance of the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning. For more on the NSF and the CAREER program, visit http://www.nsf.gov.