John Dalton Medal 2006

The American scientist Marc Parlange has won the prestigious EGU John Dalton Medal for his for his important work in advancing the concepts of fluid mechanics in land-atmosphere interactions.   

The EGU John Dalton Medal has been established by the Division on Hydrological Sciences in recognition of the scientific achievements of John Dalton. It will be awarded by the European Geosciences Union for distinguished research in Hydrology reviewed as an Earth science.

Marc Parlange is a Professor at the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, United States.

Resumé

One of the fundamental open questions in hydrology is how to describe mass, energy, and momentum exchange rates between heterogeneous landscapes and the atmosphere. Marc’s accomplishments in this domain rank as some of the most original and important over the past 20 years. With his PhD students and faculty colleagues, he co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts in a variety of prestigious journals ranging from hydrology to soil sciences to atmospheric sciences to fluid mechanics to physics and ecology. Over the past nine years at the Johns Hopkins University and at the EPFL Lausanne, in collaboration with his colleagues and students, there has been an explosion of spectacular new theoretical and experimental contributions concerning the simulation of the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer over complex terrain. This work has resulted in an entire paradigm shift in field experimentation and the testing of sub-grid scale models. Marc’s group has successfully and creatively utilized rigorous fluid mechanics concepts, methods, and tools to advance a wide range of problems in surface hydrology.

Medal Lecture

Professor Parlange will accept his medal and give his Medal lecture during the EGU General Assembly, to be held in Vienna, Austria from 2 – 7 April 2006. The lecture starts at 19:00 h, Tuesday, 4 April in Lecture Room 25 (C).
More information: http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/awards/medallists/_2006/john_dalton.html