My overall research agenda is to investigate important water resources management problems using heuristic optimization (e.g. genetic algorithms, swarm optimization, simulated annealing, etc.). Specific applications include: containing subsurface contamination via pump-and-treat well-field systems; preventing the transport of hydrophobic organic contaminants via multilayer sorptive barrier technologies; and automatic calibration of hydrologic models. In addition to providing new insights into these types of management problems, the work has also helped establish guidelines for the effective selection and use of heuristic algorithms within the environmental modeling community.
My current research emphasizes: non-linear sorption in subsurface contaminant transport; approaches for improved calibration of environmental models; and optimial design of subsurface remediation systems.
(PhD Dissertation)