The National Ground Water Association has chosen Michael Celia as the 2008 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer. The prestigious honor, awarded annually since its establishment in 1986, supports the travel of one expert to share his or her work in lectures at universities throughout the world.

The chair and professor of civil and environmental engineering, Celia was selected to deliver the lecture series given his stature “as one of the most outstanding ground water hydrologists in North America.” Celia’s accomplishments include the development of sophisticated quantitative methods that can be used to simulate hydrogeologic conditions to address challenges in hydrology that have societal relevance.

Celia completed his Ph.D. in civil engineering at Princeton in 1983 and joined the University faculty in 1989. A Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Celia was awarded the organization’s Hydrologic Sciences Award in 2005 and previously served as editor of the journal Advances in Water Resources.

He is an active researcher in the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, a joint project of Princeton, BP and the Ford Motor Company, as well as the Water in Africa initiative, which is funded by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.