Holly Michael is an American hydrogeologist and Associate Professor of geology at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.

Early life and education

Holly earned her BS in Civil Engineering at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 1998 and her Ph.D. in Hydrology at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 2005. Michael performed her graduate research at MIT on seasonal groundwater exchange in coastal zones in Massachusetts with her Ph.D. advisor Charles F. Harvey.

Career and research

Holly Michael is an Associate Professor of geology at the

. Her research focuses on coastal hydrogeology, groundwater-surface water interactions, and water resource management, and is often aimed at better understanding how groundwater flows and solute levels affect ecosystem and human health. Prior to serving as an associate professor at the

in 2008, Michael performed research at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and with the US Geologic Survey. Michael's academic work has had a significant impact on the discipline of hydrogeology. Her research on groundwater contamination by arsenic in the Bengal Basin has implications for the 70 million people who rely on the Bengal Basin for drinking water. Additionally, her work investigating the impacts of climate change on coastal aquifers in Bangladesh is relevant to the 40 million people who rely on those coastal ecosystems to live and work. Michael has also performed research on strategies to effectively manage and store monsoonal flow in the Ganges Basin, which has implications for flood management and

water security Water security is the focused goal of water policy and water management. A society with a high level of water security makes the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems and limits the risk of destructive impacts associated with water. T ...

. Her work has been published by a number of notable publications including ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' and ''Science.'' She currently leads the hydrogeology group in the department of Geologic Sciences at the University of Delaware. In 2012, Holly Michael received the highly prestigious

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Faculty Early Career Development Award. This grant funded her research on groundwater-seawater interactions, focusing on the issues of groundwater salinization, sediment ripples, and tides.

Awards and honors

*Geological Society of America James B. Thompson, Jr. International's Distinguished Lectureship, 2018 *Unidel Fraser Russell Career Development Chair in the Environment, University of Delaware *NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award, 2012. *Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award, 2010

Publications

Michael's work has been published in scientific journals such as ''Nature'' and ''Science.'' Michael has 50 publications as of 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Holly Living people University of Delaware faculty University of Notre Dame alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Year of birth missing (living people)