Mack Kennedy received the Geothermal Special Achievement Award from the Geothermal Resource Council, one of the world’s preeminent geothermal associations, during its 41st Annual Meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kennedy was recognized for his outstanding contributions and dedication to developing the science and engineering needed for enhanced geothermal systems.
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Groundwater—the water stored underneath the Earth’s surface between the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and bedrock—is essential for the California residents and farmers who rely on it for up to 46 percent of their annual water use. Yet during the 2012-2017 drought, the state’s surface water supply was not sufficient to meet demand, resulting in excess groundwater pumping that caused land subsidence of up to 13 inches in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley. Now a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area are working with farmers and partners like the Almond Board of California and UC Davis to test on-farm banking, a new approach that has the potential to manage groundwater more sustainably. It’s an improvement on the age-old method of groundwater recharge, the process of replenishing aquifers by infiltrating water from the surface into shallow aquifers. “On-farm banking has the promise of making the most productive use of the greatest amount of land possible while increasing the reliability and resiliency of California’s groundwater supply,” says EESA scientist Peter Nico, a soil and environmental biogeochemist.
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Thirty-five years ago, Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) scientist Patrick Dobson began his career as a graduate student by conducting field mapping, collecting fluid samples, and learning the ropes from local scientists at the Los Azufres geothermal field in Michoacán, Mexico. During his summer doing field work in Mexico, he met Berkeley Lab’s Marcelo Lippmann, who was attending a symposium on the Cerro Prieto geothermal field, the subject of a collaborative research project between the Lab (funded by the U.S. Department of Energy) and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico’s state-owned utility. Now—after decades of leading geothermal exploration projects all over the world, including Indonesia, Central America, and South America— Dobson’s work has come full circle. Earlier this year, he spent two weeks in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico as a Fulbright Specialist in geothermal research. Hosted by the Center for Scientific Investigation and Higher Education in Ensenada (CICESE), one of the main hubs for geothermal work in the country, Dobson met with Mexican researchers to share knowledge, identify areas of mutual interest, and explore potential areas of collaboration.
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The Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry are jointly bestowing the honorary title of Geochemical Fellow to James A. Davis as an outstanding scientist who has over the years made major contributions to the field of geochemistry. With other outstanding geochemists, he’ll join the ceremony for this honor at the Goldschmidt 2017 Conference to be held in Paris, France,…
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Jill Banfield, Faculty Scientist in Earth & Environmental Sciences at LBNL, and Professor at UC Berkeley, has been named 2017’s recipient of the V.M. Goldschmidt Award. This award recognizes major achievements in geochemistry or cosmochemistry. Her work focuses on geomicrobiology—natural microbial communities in the terrestrial subsurface, sediments, water, biofilms and animals. She also studies nanoparticle formation and behavior…
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The Director’s Awards program recognizes significant achievements of Berkeley Lab employees. Each year, these awards are given for accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science, cross-divisional projects, and commitment to excellence in support of the Lab’s mission and strategic goals. The 2016 recipients of the Director’s Achievement Awards were recognized this month. To see a complete list…
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The Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) recently held a townhall (Oct. 31) to preview the upcoming release of its 10-year strategic plan. Deputy Director Horst Simon, as well as Directors from other Lab Areas, joined the full house. Five Grand Challenges have been identified to drive EESA’s research over the coming decade: Earth’s Microbial…
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The benefits of pioneering science to agriculture was on display when Karen Ross, Secretary of the CA Department of Food & Agriculture, visited Berkeley Lab.
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Berkeley Lab is leading a SubTER project, called kISMET to develop an underground observatory and to conduct integrated experiments and geophysical imaging and focus on investigating stress measurement and fracture stimulation with borehole monitoring to characterize relations between stress, induced fractures, and rock fabric
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Jill Banfield's research team provides new clues about the roles of subsurface microbes in globally important cycles and adds new branches to the tree of life.
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