Having been trained in environmental biology, chemistry, geology and engineering, I bring to bear a comprehensive and integrated perspective on environmental systems and how to model them.  I have used mechanistic models as tools to integrate what is known about environmental systems and develop a quantitative understanding, and predictive ability, for how a system works.  In many cases, existing models are not appropriate and I have made refinements or developed new models to address particular objectives.  My training in the theoretical aspects of environmental systems is tempered by years of firsthand field experience in observing and measuring the parameters and variables that models are intended to represent.  With this background I approach a system and write dynamic, deterministic and mechanistic models. Considering that many of the parameters and variables that are used in models can vary over several orders of magnitude, determining site-specific values becomes essential in developing models that produce plausible predictions. This is where the specialized field equipment and methods, developed by Benthica, are used to avoid using unrealistic default values. Many available models, although technically correct, are over-parameterized with respect our ability to measure and characterize the input data, and budgetary limitations on data collection.  I am experienced in distilling down to a minimum, the number of parameters and variables that need to be quantified in order to make reasonable and appropriate predictions.

Examples of models I have written include:

    *  Lake trout introduction and population model in Yellowstone NP
    *  leaching of TBT from ship hulls and accumulation in shipyard sediment,
    *  long-term reconstruction of metal contamination history in sediments,
    *  pyrite weathering rate and evolution of chemistry in pit-lakes,
    *  2D methyl mercury diffusion and sorption in a heterogeneous sedimentary environment
    *  evolution of high-temperature abiotic pyrite oxidation in waste rock facilities
    *  estimation of tidal dispersion coefficients in narrow waterways,
    *  uranium transport in ground water with spatially variable Kds