Committee

The IAH Urban Groundwater network
Committee

Niels Hartog
Director, the Netherlands

Dr. Niels Hartog has over 20 years of professional scientific experience in the fields of environmental and applied hydrogeology, and groundwater chemistry. He holds an MSc in Contaminant Hydrogeology from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL) and a PhD in Hydrogeochemistry from Utrecht University (NL). At KWR Water Research Institute (NL) he is the Principal Scientist for the Geohydrology team and a member of KWR’s Science Council. Additionally, he holds a part-time position at Utrecht University as a Guest Associate Professor in the Environmental Hydrogeology group. He has supervised over 30 MSc and 10 PhD students and has (co-)authored over 40 articles in peer-reviewed international journals on topics ranging from groundwater quality to managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and (geo)thermal production and storage (ATES). Since 2018 he is the president of the Netherlands National IAH Chapter, since 2019 the leader of the IAH Working Group on Urban MAR.

Contact: niels.hartog@kwrwater.nl

Helen Fallas
Co-Director, UNITED KINGDOM

Helen is a senior Hydrogeologist at the British Geological Survey (BGS), and a past Knowledge Exchange Fellow of the Natural Environment Research Council in UK.  Her main research interests lie in understanding issues of demand, vulnerability and access to groundwater in Africa, and in a wider context how groundwater and wider environmental information can be used in Local and National planning policy processes. Through her work she is actively engaging with a wide range of researchers, practitioners and stakeholders in groundwater development in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as a wide network of European geological surveys, local and national government in the UK.

Ken Howard
Co-Director: CANADA

During the past 40 years, Ken Howard has worked on groundwater projects around the world, authoring or co-authoring over 150 articles including 6 books. His interests range from aquifer recharge assessment and regional groundwater modelling to contaminant migration, seawater intrusion and the impact of climate change on global water resources. He has a special interest in the management and protection of groundwater in urban areas, and the importance of good urban water governance. He has been a Professor of Hydrogeology at the University of Toronto since 1981 and served as elected President of the International Association of Hydrogeology (IAH) 2012–16.

Stephen Foster
Co-Director, UNITED KINGDOM

Stephen Foster is Visiting Professor of Hydro-geoscience at University College London, and both a Chartered Environmental Engineer and Chartered Geologist. He has long-standing and significant international experience in groundwater assessment, management and protection, and has held the following senior posts : WHO-Groundwater Advisor for Latin America and Caribbean (1986–89), British Geological Survey-Divisional Director (1990-99), World Bank-Groundwater Management Team Director (2001–11) and Global Water Partnership-Senior Adviser (2012–15). He has served as International Association of Hydrogeologists Vice-President (Western Europe) during 2000–04 and President during 2004–08. He was also one of three founders of the UK Groundwater Forum (a multi-stakeholder cross-sector platform) and a member of the EC-Groundwater Working Group during 1998–2006.

Two vacancies coming up for Early Career Hydrogeologists within the network!