Water Resources in Arid Areas: The Way Forward

Dr. Osman Abdalla holds BSc (1988) and MSc (1993) in Geology from University of Khartoum and PhD (2000) in Hydrogeology from University of Technology, Berlin. He is the Director of Water Research Center at Sultan Qaboos University since 2012 and associate professor of hydrogeology at the department of Earth sciences, College of Science. His research bridges several areas of physical and chemical hydrogeology in arid areas and intends to develop a solid platform for hydrogeological and environmental research and training of an international standard with emphasis on groundwater recharge and discharge. Dr. Abdalla has established many international and regional collaborations, been awarded over 10 major grants including His Majesty Trust Fund and published several articles in reputable international journals.

Dr. Anvar Kacimov . BSc-MSc, PhD (fluid mechanics) from Kazan University, USSR,1982, 1987. Work history: 1982-1998 at Kazan University, Departments ofSeepage and Mathematical Analysis. Since 1998 with SQU, Oman as Assistant-Associate-Full Professor, Department of Soils, Water and Agricultural Eng. Administratively: HoD (2007-2012), Director of Water Research Centre (2011-2012), Dean (2012-2015). Areas of interest: fluid, heat and mass transfer through porous media (soils, aquifers, oil formations). Applications: hydroecology, soil physics, irrigation and drainage, hydraulic and hydrologic engineering, groundwater hydrology, fluid mechanics, reservoir engineering. Publications: 128 papers in refereed journals (in English) and 2 co-authored books (in Russian). Selected awards: Omani Green Research Award with a Special Commendation of Mitsubishi Corporation (2010), Best Reviewer of Vadose Zone Journal (2005) and J. of Irrigation and Drainage Eng., ASCE (2013).

Dr. Mingjie Chen holds a Bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University(1997) and a Master degree in Environmental Sciences from Peking University in China (2000). Dr. Chen got his PhD degree in Environmental Sciences/Hydrogeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in USA in 2005. During his postdoc research from 2005-2008 at Los Alamos National Laboratory in USA, Dr. Chen developed an innovative intrusive method to quantify uncertainty of multiphase flow and reactive transport in heterogeneous subsurface area. In late 2008, Dr. Chen accepted a research assistant professor position at Tufts University in USA, leading a numerical modeling team in collaboration with a laboratory experimental team to study bio-enhanced PCE-DNAPL dissolution by anaerobic mixed cultures. In the end of 2010, Dr. Chen joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in USA as an earth scientist. He is a PI or co-investigator of numerous projects funded by Department of Energy (DOE of USA) on underground fossil energy and radioactive waste. Owing to his excellent performance, Dr. Chen was rewarded Directorate Award by Physical andLife Science Directorate of LLNL in 2013. Since 2014, Dr. Chen has been a senior hydrogeologist (associate professor rank) in Water Research Center at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, while he still remained an associate role of hydrogeology in LLNL of USA. Dr. Chen is mainly responsible for developing research programs in groundwater resources and geothermal energy using high performance computing. Dr. Chen commits duties of organizing committees of water-related international workshops and conferences, proposal-review panel, and international journal editors.

Dr. Ali Al-Maktoumi holds a BSc in Soils and Water (1998) and an MSc in Soils and Water Management from Sultan Qaboos University in Oman (2001). He received a scholarship from Oman government in 2003 to continue with his PhD studies in Environmental Engineering (Water Resources) at the University of Queensland in Australia. After his PhD in 2007, Al-Maktoumi joined the Department of Soils, Water and Agricultural Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University as an Assistant professor in the area of Hydrology. He contributed to teaching a wide range of courses in the area of arid zone hydrology and water resources management at both BSc and MSc levels. Al-Maktoumi worked as a consultant in a project " Groundwater contamination in a golden mine site in North Queensland, Australia for the period 2007-2008". Through a number of awarded grants, he established scientific collaboration with Utrecht University, Delft University of Technology, UNESCO-IHE, California Institute of Technology, Jet Prolusion Laboratory-NASA, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Putra Malaysia, and University of Jordan. Al-Maktoumi organized a number of training courses in the area of numerical modeling and co-organized a number of international conferences. In research, Al-Maktoumi focuses in feasibility of managed aquifer recharge using treated waste water in MENA region along with enhancement of recharge dams efficiency. Al-Maktoumi's developed experience in those fields are reflected in his publications.

Dr. Talal Al-Hosni holds a BSc in Earth Sciences (1999) from Sultan Qaboos University (Oman) and an MSc in Hydrogeology (2001) from Birmingham University (UK). He received a scholarship from Oman government in 2003 to continue with his PhD study in chemical Hydrogeology at Melbourne University (Australia). After his PhD in 2007, Al-Hosni joined the Department of Earth Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University as an Assistant professor in the area of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology. He worked as a Theme Supervisor (Omani Land) in the Omani Encyclopedia for the period 2008-2009. Since 2012, he is a member of the scientific Committee for the Oman Mountains Atlas Project. Areas of interest: mainly hot springs, groundwater recharge, intra-aquifers mixing, and usage of bottled water and its impact. Al-Hosni contributed to teaching a number of courses including environmental geology and hydrogeology and developed a number of training courses in the area of EIA of mining and groundwater management.

Dr. Ian Clark is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Professor Clark completed a Bachelor's of Science degree in earth sciences and a Master's of Science degree in hydrogeology at the University of Waterloo, followed by his doctoral degree at the Université de Paris-Sud (Orsay) in isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology. Since his earliest work on geothermal systems in western Canada, Ian's research has focused on the integration of geochemistry and isotopes to address questions on the origin, age, paleoclimatic context and geochemical history of groundwater and solutes in natural and contaminated settings. He continues work with his graduate students in diverse hydrogeological environments, ranging from groundwater dynamics in permafrost in the Arctic or beneath the deserts of Oman, to contamination of water resources, dispersion of radionuclides in the environment and the burial of nuclear waste. Dr. Clark and his colleagues established, just this year, new facilities in the Advanced Research Complex (ARC) at the University of Ottawa for training and analysis in the geosciences. The ARC includes laboratories for geochemistry stable isotopes, tritium, noble gases, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for radiocarbon and other radioisotopes. Professor Clark teaches geochemistry and environmental isotopes in hydrology and recently published a new undergraduate textbook Groundwater Geochemistry and Isotopes, which complements his graduate-level textbook (co-authored with Professor Peter Fritz): "Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology".