Claudia Cherubini

NP Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

The 2012 Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award is awarded to Claudia Cherubini for valuable contributions to the hydrogeological modeling of groundwater applied to resource management, with specific approaches for coastal fractured aquifers, and for applying advanced geo-statistical techniques to model environmental and anthropogenic variables.

Claudia Cherubini is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Polytechnic University of Bari where she has been working since 2003. Her research domain focuses on hydrogeology topics applied to different sectors of Environmental Engineering. What mainly characterizes her research activity is hydrogeological modeling applied to groundwater resources management. By means of the use of deterministic and stochastic methods, Cherubini was able to characterize the spatial distribution of coastal aquifer’s properties and to model environmental and anthropogenic variables by using advanced geo-statistical techniques. In this way, one can reproduce detailed geological reconstructions that support numerical models. Groundwater flow and transport modeling allow simulations suitable for groundwater management by master plans, remediation interventions at polluted sites and a correct exploitation of groundwater in coastal areas. The characterization and the description of phenomena that involve fractured aquifers, especially if considered in relationship with water resource exploitation, is an important issue because fractured aquifers serve as the primary source of drinking water for many areas of the world. Due to her expertise Cherubini was recently invited to be a lecturer on the MSc module “Mineral Resource Assessment” at University of Exeter-Camborne School of Mines.