For immediate release
Dr. Ron Green, an institute scientist at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), has been elected chairman of the board of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI). This nonprofit, government-supported organization conducts, facilitates, and promotes programs in cave and karst research, education, environmental management, and data acquisition and sharing.
“NCKRI fosters interdisciplinary cooperation in cave and karst research,” Green said. Karst is partially dissolved limestone rock that creates complex underground aquifers characterized by sinkholes, ravines, and other surface features. “Of particular interest to me is the role the organization plays in protecting the environment for the benefit of cave and karst landforms while developing environmentally sound and sustainable resource management practices.”
Green is a groundwater hydrologist with research experience in groundwater resource assessment, multiphase and groundwater modeling, laboratory and field experiments, and environmental geophysics. He has served as the principal lead for karst hydrology investigations, including investigating hydraulic interactions in groundwater systems and modeling groundwater flow through karst aquifers.
He was a principal investigator for an SwRI-funded project to design, build, and deploy a neutrally buoyant sensor to remotely map the pathway and morphology of karst conduits and measure the velocity of groundwater flow in them. The invention earned an R&D 100 Award, recognizing it as one of the top 100 innovations in 2009 by R&D Magazine.
A member of the NCKRI board since 2009, Green served as vice chairman in 2016. NCKRI, located in Carlsbad, New Mexico, started as a federal institute within the U.S. National Park Service. NCKRI converted to a nonprofit corporation in 2006 to boost its ability to create partnerships with other organizations. The National Park Service along with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the city of Carlsbad oversee NCKRI administration.
For more information, contact Deb Schmid, (210) 522-2046, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.