Charlottesville, August 29, 2005
By: Charlie Feigenoff
What you can’t see can hurt you—especially if you’re one of the millions of Americans who get their tap water from underground aquifers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 40 percent of our watersheds fail to meet acceptable water standards. That’s why engineer Teresa Culver’s work is so important. The University of Virginia professor is devising ways for localities to launch sound, cost-effective plans for groundwater remediation.
Cleaning up a contaminated aquifer requires many assumptions. Underground aquifers are complex systems, at the intersection of geology, chemistry and biology. Researchers often don’t understand all the interactions that occur among them. To make matters worse, it is difficult to see, identify, measure and trace underground pollutants effectively. “My challenge is to teach computers to come up with a solution that incorporates what we don’t know, as well as what we do know,” Culver says. “I develop solutions that are most likely to work given the imperfect nature of our information.”
One of the techniques Culver uses is the genetic algorithm, a mathematical approach that mimics evolution. In essence, she creates a population of possible solutions that mathematically evolve as the fittest come to the top. By repeating the process over and over under slightly different conditions each time, she finds the solution that will work best over a wide range of situations.
Such an approach helps her provide community leaders with a plan that is optimized for their particular circumstances. But, as Culver notes, developing a plan and getting people to sign on to it are two different things.
Culver’s research interests includeoptimal design of groundwater remediation systems,
numerical modeling of subsurface contaminant transport, and watershed management. Recent research-funding agencies include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Education.
Culver holds a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University and has received several awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1995–1999), the Walter L. Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (2002) and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Civil Engineering Teaching Award (2005).
