Key People
Director: Maurizio Polemio
| Hydraulic Engineer and Senior Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). Since 1989, he has worked at the Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection (IRPI), where he served as Head of the Bari Unit. He is the Scientific Coordinator of the Hydrology Laboratory and the Hydrogeology Research Group. Author of over 200 publications, he has taught Applied Geology and Hydrogeology at the University of Calabria and the University of Bari. He holds qualifications as a Full Professor in the 04/A3 sector: Applied Geology, Physical Geography, and Geomorphology. He has extensive experience leading research teams within national and international projects. An expert in the hydrogeology of Italy’s main aquifers, particularly in the south, as well as in Mediterranean countries (Albania, Malta, Greece, etc.), he has developed in-depth expertise in these areas. He served as the Scientific Secretary of the Italian Committee of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme for many years and has held leadership roles in scientific associations, including IAH, IAHS, IAEG, and AIGA. He acts as a reviewer for scientific articles for the most prestigious international journals in the field and evaluates research projects for several foreign scientific institutions. As an expert, he has collaborated with or supported numerous prominent national and local institutions in the field. His research and studies focus on natural hazards and hydrogeological disasters, particularly floods and landslides, as well as hydrology, applied geology, and hydrogeology. His expertise encompasses groundwater pollution, aquifer vulnerability, seawater intrusion, quantitative degradation, and groundwater management in the context of climate change, employing methods ranging from field surveys to the use of statistical and numerical models. In these fields, he serves as a Consultant for private entities and major national and regional public institutions.
(maurizio.polemio@cnr.it) |
Co-Director: Albert Folch
Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering. He received his PhD in Geology in 2010 at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with training periods at the University of Arizona (USA) and the University of Oxford (UK). His research focuses on different fields of hydrogeology, including coastal aquifers, large-scale groundwater flow systems, river-aquifer interactions, groundwater contamination at local and basin scale, and the development of different pollution remediation strategies. With more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, he has participated in and/or coordinated different projects related to aquifer characterisation, groundwater pollution and remediation, numerical flow modelling and water resources management. He participated in more than 15 research projects, including 7 projects of the “National plan” from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Spain) and two European projects. He has led projects in Latin America to evaluate the effect of water transfers in coastal dry areas (Perú), the effect of intensive agriculture (Guatemala), and has been Co-principal investigator of a 5-year project focused on groundwater
governance in Kenya led by the University of Oxford (UK). Currently, he is leading two projects to characterise seawater intrusion and submarine groundwater discharge, applying a multidisciplinary approach with different national and international partners. He teaches in the areas of Civil Engineering, Geology, Environment and Marine sciences. In 2012, he was rewarded with the Alfons Bayó award for Young Researchers, given by the Spanish Group of the International Association of Hydrogeologists.(albert.folch.s@upc.edu) |
Member: Audrey Sawyer
| Audrey Sawyer is a Distinguished Investigator at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the Groundwater Hydrology Group. She is also an adjunct faculty member of The Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences. Audrey’s research focus is surface water-groundwater interaction in coastal zones, streams, and lakes. She seeks to understand how fluid flow influences water quality, its availability, and the implications for humans and ecosystems using computer models, laboratory tests, and field observations. She has co-authored over sixty scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Science. She is also the recipient of the Kohout Early Career Award in Hydrogeology from the Geological Society of America, an Early Career award from the National Science Foundation, and an ATRAE award from the State Research Agency of Spain. Some of her recent projects include rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers and the fate of emerging contaminants and nutrients in rivers and groundwater. She teaches courses in hydrogeology, water issues, and introductory geology. Audrey received a B.S. in geology and environmental engineering from Rice University, a M.Sc. in geoscience from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. in geological sciences at the University of Texas-Austin. She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Delaware. She now serves as Editor at Water Resources Research.
(sawyer.143@osu.edu) |
Member: Gualbert Oude Essink
| Dr. Gualbert Oude Essink is a hydrogeologist with extensive experience in developing sustainable solutions to improve freshwater availability in coastal zones, working in the Netherlands, Belgium, Egypt, Singapore, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. He works at Deltares and is an associate professor at Utrecht University. His research focuses on fresh-saline groundwater in subsiding coastal areas under paleo, anthropogenic, climate change, and storm-surge conditions. Gu is involved in various activities such as airborne surveys for rapid groundwater salinity mapping, aquifer storage and recovery, smart monitoring, and numerical modelling of groundwater resources. He also contributes to teaching and supervising MSc students and Ph.D. candidates.
(Gualbert.OudeEssink@deltares.nl) |
Webmaster: Fabrizio Antonio Piscedda
| In 2021, they earned a Master’s degree by presenting a thesis titled: “Combined Application of the Water Table Fluctuation Method and Geochemical and Isotopic Investigations to Evaluate Recharge Sources and Their Effect on the Intrusion Process of the Coastal Aquifer in Muravera (Southeastern Sardinia). In 2022, they began a research fellowship at the Faculty of Geological Sciences and Technologies in Cagliari, titled: “Geochemical, Isotopic, and Hydrogeological Insights into Groundwater Bodies.” As of March 1, 2023, they have been pursuing a PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences and Technology, with a focus on designing management systems for coastal aquifers affected by saline intrusion.
(fabrizioa.piscedda@unica.it) |
Webmaster: Daniel Gonzalez-Duque
Post Doctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University. His research is centred on investigating the movement of water through Earth’s systems and its impact on transport and biogeochemical reactions of chemical constituents that influence ecosystems and communities. To achieve this, he utilises numerical models, data consolidation and analysis, and statistical methods within high-performance computing environments to assess hydrologic ecosystems. My key research interests encompass surface water-groundwater interactions, groundwater hydrology, physical hydrology, geophysics, climatology, and meteorology.
(gonzalezduque.1@osu.edu)
