Kansas Geological Survey senior scientist James J. Butler Jr., Ph.D., has been chosen as the 2007 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in Ground Water Science by the National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation (NGWREF).

As the Darcy Lecturer, Butler will spend the year speaking at colleges and universities throughout the world to educate and generate interest in ground water science. He will offer two lectures—one focusing on ground water modeling and the other on phreatophytes (plants that use ground water) in semiarid zones.

Requests for the Darcy Lecturer for the 2007 calendar year will be accepted only by completing the online request form found on the National Ground Water Association Web site at http://www.ngwa.org/forms/darcylectureform.html. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2006.

Butler’s lectures are as follows:

• "Getting the Information Ground Water Modelers Need: A Report from the Field" is a methods-based presentation focusing on new technology for acquiring information about hydraulic conductivity at scales of relevance for investigations of ground water contamination.
• "What the Heck is a Phreatophyte? A Field Investigation of Ecohydrologic Processes in Stream-Aquifer Systems” is an overview of a multidisciplinary investigation of water use by phreatophytes. Ground water consumption by nonnative phreatophytes is an issue of concern in the western United States, as well as elsewhere.