GRA Presents 2009 Annual Awards

The Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA) presented its annual Lifetime Achievement and Kevin J. Neese awards at its 18th Annual Meeting on October 7, 2009 in Sacramento, CA.

The GRA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to individuals for their exemplary contributions to the groundwater industry and for contributions that have been in the spirit of GRA’s mission and organization objectives. Individuals that receive the Lifetime Achievement Award have dedicated their lives to the groundwater industry and have been pioneers in their field of expertise. The 2009 recipient is Dr. T.N. Narasimhan, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Narasimhan was selected because of his 50 years of experience as a field practitioner, researcher, and professor in groundwater hydrology and water resources. His career has been devoted to the study of water, including its scientific, engineering, cultural, human, and policy aspects. The study of water as a natural resource has led him to recognize the delicate linkages that exist among the Earth’s hydrological, erosional, and nutritional cycles that sustain all life. He is passionate about the major challenges that lie ahead for our technological society to sustain water resources on local and global scales. Dr. Narasimhan is the principal organizer of the California Colloquium on Water, a campus-wide distinguished lecture series devoted to education about water among faculty, students, and the public. He has authored more than 110 technical publications, 36 reports, and contributed to nine published textbooks in the field of hydrology and water resources during his career.

The Kevin J. Neese Award recognizes significant accomplishment by a person or entity within the most recent 12-month period that fosters the understanding, development, protection and management of groundwater. The 2009 recipient is the U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center for development of a new, three-dimensional groundwater-modeling tool for California’s Central Valley and report Groundwater Availability of the Central Valley Aquifer. USGS hydrologist Dr. Claudia Faunt will accept the award on behalf of the USGS. She led a team of scientists from the California Water Science Center that developed the Central Valley Hydrologic Model.

GRA’s Annual Meeting was connected with the 27th Biennial Groundwater Conference where many experts and officials addressed issues facing California groundwater.