Prabhakar Clement of Auburn University, Alabama, has received the National Ground Water Association’s (NGWA) 2016 John Hem Award for Excellence in Science & Engineering, given for significant, recent scientific or engineering contributions to the understanding of groundwater.

“Professor Clement is an internationally known groundwater scientist, contributing significantly to the groundwater community over the past two decades,” says award nominator Chunmiao Zheng with the University of Alabama. “Among others, he has made intellectual contributions to the following two key groundwater topics: modeling bioreactive transport processes and managing saltwater intrusion processes.”

Having built his reputation in the reactive transport modeling area by developing the three-dimensional MODFLOW-family numerical code RT3D, Clement has also developed a series of analytical solutions for solving different types of coupled reactive transport equations during his career. Because of this expertise, Clement was invited to serve on the National Research Council committee that produced Contaminated Water Supplies at Camp Lejeune: Assessing Potential Health Effects based on a study completed to resolve a highly controversial groundwater contamination problem at the U.S. Marines Corps Base in North Carolina.

Clement’s saltwater intrusion management research led to the publishing of a seminal work in 2011 in which he explored the impacts of climate change-related sea level rise on saltwater intrusion. “His work will help us to deal with many water resource and environmental problems,” says Ling Li, a professor in the School of Civil Engineering, the University of Queensland.

In addition to Clement’s other research interests, he has been published more than 95 times in peer-reviewed publications, received numerous honors, awards and recognitions, and has served as associate editor of several scientific journals including NGWA’s Groundwater.

NGWA is a nonprofit that supports responsible development, management and use of water resources. It’s comprised of groundwater professionals ranging from contractors to equipment manufacturers to scientists and engineers. For more information, visit www.ngwa.org.