U of S groundwater pioneer to receive Distinguished Researcher Award

Posted May 18, 2006


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, May 18, 2006 2006-05-25-OTHER

U of S groundwater pioneer to receive Distinguished Researcher Award

A University of Saskatchewan professor whose pioneering research is
providing knowledge critical to stewardship of Earth's precious fresh water
resources will receive this spring's Distinguished Researcher Award at the
Spring Convocation ceremony at 9:00 a.m. on May 24 at TCU Place in
Saskatoon.

Jim Hendry, a professor of geology in the department of geological sciences,
is world-renowned for his innovative research with aquitards -
near-impermeable underground layers that sandwich the water-rich aquifers
providing water supplies across Canada and around the world.

"Professor Hendry's pioneering insights have brought light to an area of
geological science that had remained an unassailable frontier," says U of S
Vice President Research Steven Franklin. "His work has given us new methods
for stewardship of Earth's precious water resources, and passed this
knowledge to our students to take on this role in the future."

Clay-rich aquitards are also the material of choice to sequester the
dangerous wastes of modern technological society - everything from swine
waste and PCBs to mine tailings and nuclear waste. Despite their importance,
they are among the most difficult geological features to study and thus the
least understood area in groundwater science.

Hendry was one of the first to address this challenge in a rigorous manner
and thus define the field. With more than 100 research papers on the topic
to date, his work is the most significant and comprehensive reference on
aquitards in existence.

Hendry achieved his B.Sc. in hydrogeology and M.Sc. in geochemistry in the
1970s from the University of Waterloo. He was awarded a PhD in
hydrogeochemistry in 1984 through his studies at the Universities of
Waterloo and Alberta. For 10 years he was head of the Groundwater Section of
Alberta Agriculture's Lethbridge Research Centre before becoming director of
research for the U.S. National Groundwater Association in 1988.

He returned to Canada in 1990 to lead the Groundwater and Contaminants
Project at the National Hydrology Research Institute in Saskatoon. When
Cameco donated a research chair to the University in 1994, an international
peer-reviewed competition selected Hendry to fill it. This was leveraged
into a Cameco-NSERC Industrial Research Chair, recently renewed for a third
five-year term.

Hendry has developed courses on using isotopes to study groundwater
contamination, contaminant transport, aqueous geochemistry, and aquifer
analysis. He currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in aqueous
and environmental geochemistry.

He has also contributed to numerous scholarly and outreach activities,
including seminars on groundwater safety presented to the public. In the
academic community, he has fostered strong collaborations within the
university and among outside partners. A strong proponent of the Canadian
Light Source, he has led workshops on its use in geological research.

Hendry's work has been selected for international awards, and resulted in a
vibrant network of industrial and academic partners who seek his expertise.
He was selected as the prestigious Darcy Lecturer in 2000, and over the next
two years spoke at nearly 40 universities and research institutions in North
America, Europe and Australia. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Hem Award
for Excellence in Science and Engineering in Groundwater.

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Note to editors: a photo of Jim Hendry is available on request.

For more information, contact:

Jim Hendry
Department of Geological Sciences
College of Arts and Science
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5720
jim.hendry@usask.ca

Michael Robin
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research


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