Scott W. Tyler (B.S. Mechanical Engineering ’78), Ph.D., a Foundation Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, will receive the John Hem Award for Excellence in Science and Engineering at the 2013 NGWA Groundwater Expo in Nashville in December. The award recognizes individuals who make significant contributions of service, research and innovation to the industry. He was recognized with a collaborator, Dr. John Selker (Oregon State Univ.), for their development and application of fiber-optic temperature sensing for hydrology and development of the first community user facility in hydrology for instrumentation. The researchers have used innovative fiber-optic/laser technology to capture temperatures around the globe, in a variety of hydrological, climatological and geological settings such as glaciers, caves, creeks, mines, avalanche areas, volcanoes and farmlands. Dr. Tyler has even studied the water temperature at Devils Hole in Death Valley to help protect the endangered pupfish and drilled through 200 meters of Antarctic ice to take the temperature of the McMurdo Ice Shelf and the 800 meters of ocean underneath it. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1990. Read more about Dr. Tyler’s award here.

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