Kamini Singha
311E Berthoud Hall, 1516 Illinois St, Golden, CO 80401 phone: +1 303.273.3822 email: ksingha@mines.edu
Professional Experience
- 2022-present – University Distinguished Professor, Colorado School of Mines
- 2020-present – Associate Dean, Earth and Society Programs , Colorado School of Mines
- 2016-present – Professor, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering (with courtesy joint appointments in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Geophysics), Colorado School of Mines
- 2016-2019 – Associate Department Head, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
- 2018 – Interim Director, Hydrologic Science and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines
- 2014-2017 – Associate Director, Hydrologic Science and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines
- 2012-2016 – Associate Professor, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
- 2011-2012 – Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University
- 2005-2012 – Associate, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, The Pennsylvania State University
- 2005-2011 – Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University
- 2003-2004 – Lecturer, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University
- 2003-2004 – Instructor, Outdoor Education Program, Stanford University
- 1997-2000 – Student Trainee, Hydrology, Hydrogeophysics Branch, U.S. Geological Survey
Education
- PhD – 2005 in Hydrogeology from Stanford University
- BSc – 1999 with Honors in Geophysics from University of Connecticut
Research Interests
General
- groundwater hydrology
- environmental geophysics/hydrogeophysics
- watershed hydrology
- critical zone science
Specific
- physical processes controlling solute and contaminant mass transport
- integration of geophysical imaging with flow and transport modeling
- groundwater at interfaces, including groundwater-surface water exchange (see a video from our 2016 CUAHSI workshop) and groundwater-evapotranspiration connections (see a video about critical zone science)
a little bit about me
details on current and previously funded research
current student projects
Community Awards and Honors
- 2023 – CUAHSI Biennial Florence Bascom Lecturer
- 2022 – AGU Paul A. Witherspoon Lecturer
- 2022 – Society of Exploration Geophysicists Reginald Fessenden Award
- 2019 – Fulbright Scholar (Ireland)
- 2018 – Fellow, Geological Society of America
- 2017 – Society of Exploration Geophysicists Women’s Network Committee’s Pioneer in Geophysics
- 2017 – The National Ground Water Association Darcy Lecturer
- 2009 – Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society/Geonics Early Career Award
- 2008 – National Science Foundation CAREER Award (5 years)
- 2000 – STAR Fellow, Environmental Protection Agency (3 years)
University-Level Awards and Fellowships
- 2024 – Visiting Professor, Stanford University Doerr School of Sustainability
- 2022 – Outstanding Faculty Member as chosen by the Geology & Geological Engineering graduating seniors, Colorado School of Mines
- 2019 – Colorado School of Mines W. M. Keck Mentorship Award
- 2019 – Colorado School of Mines Faculty Senate Distinguished Lecturer
- 2019 – Visiting International Research Fellowship, Flinders University, Australia
- 2018 – Gallagher Fellow, University of Calgary, Canada
- 2017 – Ben Fryrear Endowed Chair for Innovation and Excellence at the Colorado School of Mines (3 years)
- 2017 – Colorado School of Mines Faculty Excellence Award
- 2014 – Outstanding Faculty Member in the Colorado School of Mines Hydrologic Science and Engineering Program
- 2014 – Faculty Fellow, McBride Honors Program, Colorado School of Mines
- 2012 – Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2011 – Penn State George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2008 – Research Fellow, Institut de Géophysique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland (2 years)
- 2007 – Faculty Fellow, Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa (AESEDA), Penn State (3 years)
- 1999 – Cecil Green Fellow, Geophysics Department, Stanford University
- 1999 – Outstanding Woman Student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut
- 1999 – John B. Lucke Award for Outstanding Geology Student, University of Connecticut
- 1995 – Presidential Scholar, University of Connecticut (4 years)
Paper and Presentation Awards
- 2024 – Hydrological Processes Editor’s Choice Award for Warix et al. (2024)
- 2024 – One of the top 5 most-read papers in Water Resources Research in 2023 for Foroumandi et al. (2023)
- 2022 – Top Ten SSRN Downloaded Paper for Gonzalez-Pinzon et al. (2022)
- 2022 – Wiley Top Cited Paper for Singha and Navarre-Sitchler (2021) (also a Top Downloaded Paper) and Ader et al. (2021)
- 2015 – “Top 31” Presentation (out of ~1100) from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Annual Meeting
- 2013 – Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award for Ward et al. (2012)
- 2004 – Best Oral Presentation, School of Earth Sciences Research Review, Stanford University
- 2003 – Outstanding Student Paper, Hydrology Section, Fall AGU Meeting
Career Development and Training
- 2022 – Participant, Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Women in STEM Leadership Program
- 2022 – Participant, Accessibility Course for Education, Colorado School of Mines
- 2020 – Participant, Advocacy & Water Protection in Native California Certificate Program, Humboldt State University Department of Native American Studies
- 2020 – Participant, Engineering and Facilitating Online Learning, Colorado School of Mines
- 2019 – Participant, Open Educational Resources OER@Mines Champion Certificate Program, Colorado School of Mines
- 2019 – Participant, American Geosciences Institute Geoscience Congressional Visits Days (also in 2020)
- 2016 – Participant, Harvard University’s Management Development Program
- 2006 – Participant, National Association of Geoscience Teachers’ Early Career Faculty Workshop
- 2005 – Participant, National Association of Geoscience Teachers’ Teaching Hydrogeology in the 21st Century Workshop
- Wilderness First Responder (current certification through 7/2025)
Teaching
- GEGN 466/566 – Groundwater Engineering (Fall)
- GEGN 584 – Field Methods in Hydrology (Fall)
- GEGN 532 – Geological Data Analysis (Spring)
- HNRS 450A – Water, Energy, and the West (taught previously) Covered in the Denver Post!
Recent Research Papers
(+=undergraduate student author, *=graduate student author, #=postdoc author; click here for full list and pdfs)
- Snieder, R. and Singha, K. (submitted). Why everybody can hear the symphony. Submitted to American Journal of Physics.
- Irvine, D.J., Singha, K., Kurylyk, B.L, Briggs, M.A., Sebastian, Y., Tait, D.R., Helton, A. (submitted). Groundwater-surface water interaction research: past trends and future directions. Submitted to Journal of Hydrology.
- Dorley, J.*, Singley, J.*, Covino, T., Singha, K., Gooseff, M.N., and González-Pinzón, R. (submitted). Differences in aquatic respiration in two contrasting streams: forested vs agricultural. Submitted to Frontiers in Water.
- Holmes, R.*, Kroepsch, A., and Singha, K. (submitted). River communities and the politics of water safety: Understanding water-quality debates after the Gold King Mine Spill. Submitted to Environmental Communication.
- Zhang, Z.*, Guan, H., Veneklaas, E., Singha, K., and Batelaan, O. (submitted). A new, in-situ method reveals seasonal plasticity of whole-plant hydraulic properties using a pumping-test analogue. Submitted to Water Resources Research.
- Swift Bird, K.*, Navarre-Sitchler, A. and Singha, K. (in revision). Hyporheic reaction potential: A framework for predicting reach-scale metal(loid) fate and transport. Submitted to Environmental Science & Technology.
- Gambill, I.*, Marshall, A.*, Benson, D.A., McFadden, S.*, Navarre-Sitchler, A., Wohl, E., and Singha, K. (in revision). Exploring the influence of channel intermittency and discharge on transient storage and hyporheic exchange in stream systems: Insights from multiple logjams and channels. Submitted to Water Resources Research.
- Sullivan, P.L, Singha, K., Barnard, H.B., Genereux, D.P., Brookfield, A.E., Rempe, D., Stotler, R.L., Karlstrom, L., McIntosh, J., Michael, H.A., Jarecke, K.#, Price, R.M., Loheide, S.P. II, White, A. (in press). Groundwater: The Dynamic Base of the Critical Zone, chapter in Critical Zone and Ecosystems Dynamics, Springer.
- Dumont, M.# and Singha, K. (2024). Geophysics as a hypothesis-testing tool for critical zone hydrogeology. WIREs Water, doi: 10.1002/wat2.1732. (Invited.)
- Singha, K., Sullivan, P.L., Billings, S., Walls, L., Li, L., Jarecke, K.#, Barnard, H., Gasparini, N., Madoff, R.D., Dhital, S., Jones, C.+, Kastelic, E.*, Ma, L., Perilla-Castillo, P.#, Song, B.#, Zhu, T. (2024). Expanding the spatial reach and human impacts of critical zone science. Earth’s Future, doi:10.1029/2023EF003971.
- Hoagland, B.#, Rasmussen, K.*, Singha, K., Spear, J.R., and Navarre-Sitchler, A. (2024). Metal-oxide precipitation influences microbiome structure in hyporheic zones receiving acid rock drainage. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, doi:10.1128/aem.01987-23.
- Warix, S.R.*, Navarre-Sitchler, A. and Singha, K. (2024). Water-rock interactions drive chemostasis. Hydrological Processes, doi:10.1002/hyp.15078.
- Han, Z.*, Kang, X., Singha, K., Wu, J. and Shi, X. (2024). Real-time monitoring of in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) of aqueous-phase TCE by integrating electrical resistivity tomography and reactive transport modeling. Water Research, doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121195.
Recent Abstracts
(+=undergraduate student author, *=graduate student author, #=postdoc author)
- Adebayo, M.B.* and Singha, K. (2024). A hydrogeophysical framework to access the controls of stream intermittency in a mid-order watershed. Society of Exploration Geophysicists IMAGE 2024 Meeting, 26-29 August, Houston, TX.
- Li, L., Barnard, H., Jin, L., Ma, L., Perdrial, J.N., Singha, K. and Sullivan, P.L.(2024). Critical zone science at the convergence of disciplines, people, place, and scales. 2024 Goldschmidt Conference, 18-23 August, Chicago.
- Payn, R.A., Bayrd, V.A., Zimmer, M.A., Singha, K., Burgin, A.J., and Read, J.S. (2024). A community discussion on publicly sharing data collection protocols for generating FAIR data products. AGU WaterSciCon24, 24-27 June, St. Paul, Minnesota.
- Kgoadi, R.+, Swift Bird, K.*, and Singha, K. (2024). Quantifying spatial and temporal drivers of geochemistry along a metal-impacted reach of an alpine stream. Stanford Research Conference, 5-7 April, Stanford, CA.
- Montoya, J.+, Swift Bird, K.*, Kgoadi, R.+, and Singha, K. (2024). Do snowmelt driven differences in stream discharge control surface water-groundwater interaction in an alpine stream? Stanford Research Conference, 5-7 April, Stanford, CA.
- Shakas, A., Hediger, R.*, Pfister, I.*, Meusburger, K.D., de Pasquale, G., Singha, K., Wagner, F., Maurer, H. (2024). Electrical resistivity tomography on pine trees during an irrigation experiment: Results and modeling advances. Agrogeo24, 1-2 February, ETH Zurich.
Recent Invited Talks
2024
2023
- University of California-Los Angeles Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Seminar
- Critical Interface Network (CINet) Junior Scientist Council Seminar Series (online)
- Critical Zone Collaborative Network Research Experience for Undergraduates Frontiers Seminar (online)
- CUAHSI Biennial Florence Bascom Lecture
- Osher Lifelong Learning Institute – University of Denver
- Critical Zone Geomicrobiology Network: Leveraging and Expanding Critical Zone Science (online)
- Moos Family Speaker Series in Water Resources, Freshwater Society/University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences (online)
- Central Connecticut State University Department of Geological Sciences
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ Women’s Network Webinar (online)
- Northern Illinois Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment Colloquium (online)
2022
- AGU Paul A. Witherspoon Lecture
- Mines Global Energy Future Innovation Forum
- AGU Frontiers in Hydrology Meeting
- Arizona State University Hydrosystems Seminar (online)
- L’Unité Mixte de Recherche METIS, Sorbonne Université, France (online)
- University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences (online)
- University of Delhi Society of Exploration Geophysicists Chapter, India (online)
2021
- University of Iowa Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (online)
- Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment (online)
- University of Utah Department of Geology and Geophysics (online)
- University of Northern Colorado Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science (online)
- National Geophysical Research Institute, India (online)
- Shandong University School of Civil Engineering, China (online)
- Women Advancing River Research Seminar Series (online)
- Wyoming Geophysical Society (online)
- University of Waterloo Water Institute WaterTalks, Canada (online)
invited talks from 2020 and earlier
Selected Service
- Participant, AGU Local Science Partners (2022-present)
- Editor, Water Resources Research (2021-present)
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (2021-present)
- Member of the Expert Advisory and Evaluation Panel for the NSF-funded Characterization and Training of Spatial Skills in Hydrogeology (2020-present)
- Member of the Board of Directors, the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (2019-present)
- Invited Participant in the National Academy of Sciences Workshop on Scientific Facility Engagement (2019)
- Planning Committee Member for the National Academy of Sciences Workshop on Groundwater Recharge and Flow (2018-2019)
- Co-organizer (with Mike Gooseff), CUAHSI Techniques for Stream-Groundwater Investigations Workshop (2012, 2016)
- Associate Editor at Water Resources Research (2012-2016), Frontiers in Water (2019-2020)
- Member of the Board of Directors, Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) (2015-2017)
- Member of the Colorado School of Mines Faculty Senate (2013-2016); Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate (2014-2016)