On May 7, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) Jeffrey J. McDonnell (from RSC Academy of Science) gave a guest lecture on the topic of “Compartmentalization of the Terrestrial Water Cycle.”

Jeffrey J McDonnell speaks

In the lecture, Professor McDonnell focused on the history of hydrology by introducing basic concepts, water circulation, and water balance. He then introduced some innovative ideas of the isotope method in water cycle research as well as the latest progress in related research. McDonnell pointed out a series of hindering problems regarding the diversified storage, flow,and detention of water despite the long history of hydrology research. A possible solution according to him would be further interdisciplinary research of biology, chemistry or geosciences, which could be used to deal with climate change and promote human development from a hydrological perspective.

As a long-time researcher on hydrology, Jeffrey J. McDonnell is a member of Geological Society of America (GSA) and American Geophysical Union (AGU). He has won the International Hydrology Award, Dalton Award, and Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer Award. McDonnell’s research focus are the new observation and simulation methods in the process of runoff generation, and he has been using isotopes to elaborate on the mechanism of hydrological processes.