FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 25, 2008                                 

DRI hires Assistant Research Hydrologist
Anna Knust has modeled Northern Nevada groundwater systems

RENO – Anna Knust has been hired as an Assistant Research Hydrologist with in the Desert Research Institute’s Division of Hydrologic Sciences.

“Anna is a recent product of the excellent graduate program of Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno and we’re proud that she has chosen to stay in the state,” said Stephen Wells, DRI President. “She will be a valuable asset in DRI’s on-going surface water and groundwater studies in the arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States.”

For Knust’s master’s thesis, she constructed a groundwater flow and transport model of Spanish Springs Valley, Nevada to increase understanding of nitrate contamination in the basin. The project included development of a conceptual model, model calibration, incorporation of subsurface heterogeneity based on statistical analysis of well logs, and uncertainty analysis. She presented this project at the Geological Society of America meeting in October 2006.

Knust earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Indiana University in May 2004 and a master’s in Hydrogeology from UNR in December 2006.

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