SEMINAL ADVANCES IN HYDROGEOLOGY 1963 TO 2012: THE O.E. MEINZER AWARD LEGACY

During the 20^th century, the science of hydrogeology focused on establishing and refining fundamental principles and developing tools to study groundwater flow, well hydraulics, hydrogeochemistry, and contaminant hydrogeology. By the end of the century, the science evolved to assimilate principles and expertise from other disciplines including surface water hydrology, chemistry, microbiology, geophysics, and ecology. In this paper, we review the seminal achievements in hydrogeology from 1963 to 2012, focusing on work by recipients of the Hydrogeology Division’s O. E. Meinzer Award, one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in hydrogeology. The canon of 114 Meinzer Award papers, reports, and books reflects the intellectual trends in hydrogeological research since the early 1960s. We anticipate that the contributions of future Meinzer awardees will continue to document leadership in hydrogeology, perhaps in areas that have not yet been recognized by the award, including; hydrogeoecology and hyporheic processes, submarine groundwater discharge, multi-level slug tests and hydraulic tomography, heat as a groundwater tracer, hydrogeophysics including remote sensing, and regional groundwater hydrology applied to issues of climate change.