The Herman Bouwer award at BSMAR and ISMAR
The Herman Bouwer Award recognizes people or agencies that have significantly advanced the understanding or use of MAR.
About the award
AHS and GRA created this award in honor of Dr. Herman Bouwer’s significant role in advancing our understanding of MAR. It is presented at two recharge symposia: BSMAR and ISMAR (the International Symposium on MAR). The winner is selected by a committee that includes prior awardees.
Nominations are closed for 2024; however, you are always welcome to submit nominations for future symposia. Note that sitting directors and branch officers of GRA and AHS are ineligible for the award. To nominate someone, use the online form on the AHS website. You’ll need to explain why they should be considered and provide supporting documents, such as a resume, newspaper clippings or articles, letters of support, published articles, and project reviews, if possible. Note that sitting directors and branch officers of GRA and AHS are ineligible for the award.
Current and Past Awardees
2024 recipient: Mark Cross
Congratulations to Mark Cross of Montgomery & Associates, who was presented with the 2024 Herman Bouwer Award at BSMAR18, which was held in Tucson from April 3–6.
Over the past 40+ years, Mark has brought a wealth of expertise to his projects — particularly MAR investigations, where he uses not only his technical skills but also his extensive experience in regulatory permitting and planning. He has led dozens of recharge feasibility assessments, successfully supervising, siting, designing, and implementing comprehensive programs. These investigations include a conceptual design for MAR facilities that will facilitate the indirect potable reuse of recycled water. In addition, he has developed conceptual and analytical models and provided oversight for numerical groundwater flow models for many MAR projects.
Past awardees: Robert Rice, Mario Lluria, David Pyne, and Peter Dillon
About Herman Bouwer
One of the world’s leading researchers in water resources management, particularly MAR, Herman Bouwer had a long and distinguished career. He authored more than 300 publications, including 12 book chapters and the textbook Ground Water Hydrology (McGraw-Hill, 1978).
He served on several committees for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, consulted on numerous recharge projects, received an OECD fellowship in 1964 for studying recharge in The Netherlands and Germany, and gave seminars and short courses on artificial recharge in the U.S., India, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco.
A native of The Netherlands, he survived World War II and the Nazi occupation. He received his MS from Wageningen University in drainage and irrigation in 1952 and his PhD in soil and water management from Cornell University in 1955. After 5 years in the Agricultural Engineering Department of Auburn University, Alabama, he joined the USDA Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, where he worked for 43 years and served as Director for 18 before retiring in early 2002.
In 2004, Herman received the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water for his work on underground water movement with emphasis on artificial recharge, water reuse, and surface and groundwater interactions. He donated a significant portion of the award money to AHS to establish the AHS Foundation, with the intent to provide long-term assured funding for annual scholarships to assist outstanding and deserving students in water resources.