George M. Hornberger, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy & Environment

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I previously was a professor at the University of Virginia for many years and
also have been a visiting scholar at the Australian National University,
Lancaster University, Stanford University, the United States Geological
Survey (USGS), the University of Colorado, and the University of California
at Berkeley. I was President of the Hydrology Section of AGU from 2006-2008.
I have been a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (a
Presidential appointment) since April 2004. I have served on numerous
National Research Council -- the operating arm of the National Academies --
boards and committees including as chair of the Commission on Geosciences,
Environment, and Resources (1996-2000) and chair of the Board on Earth
Sciences and Resources (2003-present).

Understanding how hydrological processes affect the transport of
dissolved and suspended constituents through catchments and aquifers
is one of the main aims of studies of Earth surface processes. Water is
“the universal solvent.”  Water chemically weathers rocks and soils, carrying
dissolved salts from the continents to the seas.  It interacts with decaying
vegetation and carries organic carbon seaward.  Water readily carries
chemicals that humans use to the sea, including fertilizers and other agrochemicals. 
The global water cycle is thus linked to other element cycles, for example,
to carbon and nitrogen cycles, and is inextricably linked with a host of ecosystem
functions.  Moving water carries suspended solids as well as dissolved salts, so the
water cycle is also closely tied to cycles of erosion and sedimentation.