SCOTT W. TYLER
Professor
Department of Geological
Sciences and Engineering
MS 175
University of
Nevada,
Reno
(775) 784-6250
(775)
784-1953 fax
email:
styler@unr.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Hydrology/Hydrogeology, 1990, University of Nevada, Reno,
Dissertation Title: Fractal Applications to Soil Hydraulic Properties.
M.S. Hydrology, 1983, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Thesis Title: Field Results of Borehole Infiltration Tests.
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1978, University of Connecticut
Dr. Tyler’s areas of focus span the wide range of arid region hydrology, with particular interest in bridging the gap between hydrogeology and soil physics in the discipline of vadose zone hydrology. He is a faculty member of the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering and adjunct faculty in Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as participating in UNR interdisciplinary Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences (www.hydro.unr.edu).
He is currently involved with a variety studies of moisture flux, groundwater recharge and energy balances in the vadose zone. His group is also a leader in the development of distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing. We have taken this technology to the study of soil moisture, aquatic stream and lake ecology, cave air circulation and the study of soil temperatures during forest fires. We have just launched the Centers for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs, www.ctemps.org) in collaboration with Oregon State University, for the development and dissemination of distributed environmental temperature sensing. Other work includes the development of coupled solar energy/desalinization systems for water reclamation, modeling the limnology of complex aquatic ecosystems, the study of ground-water/brine interactions in terrestrial environments, the development of fundamental models of root water uptake and root physics, the reconstruction of paleoclimates from soil water chemistry, and reactive transport of contaminants in fractured, dual porosity unsaturated media and mine waste materials.
In addition, he has focused a portion of his energy towards educating U.S. students on the problems and issues faced by citizens of developing countries with respect to safe drinking water. He has led volunteer graduate and undergraduate trips to Chile, Haiti and to west Africa to train local villagers in well drilling and well repair and is currently collaborating with colleagues at EPFL (http://eflum.epfl.ch/) in Switzerland on a multidisciplinary project in Burkina Faso.
Dr. Tyler is a fellow of the Geologic Society of America, the Soil Science Society of America and the Agronomy Society of America, and was the 1999 Distinguished Darcy Lecturer of the National Groundwater Association. He has just completed a 5 year term as editor of Water Resources Research, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Advances in Water Resources and the GSA Bulletin. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Consortium for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (CUAHSI) and the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences.
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Suarez, F., A. Childress and S.W. Tyler. A theoretical study of a direct contact membrane distillation system coupled to a salt-gradient solar pond for terminal lakes reclamation. 2010. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2010.05.050. Water Research.PDF version
Suarez, F., A.E. Childress and S.W. Tyler. A fully-coupled, transient double diffusive convection model for salt-gradient solar ponds. 2010. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 53:1718-1730. PDF version
Neilson, B.T., C.E. Hatch and S.W.Tyler. 2010. Effects of solar radiative heating on fiber optic cables used in aquatic settings. doi:10.1029/2009WR008354. Water Resources Res PDF version
.Steele-Dunne, S., M. Rutten, D. Krzeminska, M. Hausner, S. W. Tyler, J. Selker, T. Bogaard and N. Van de Giesen. 2010. Feasibility of soil moisture estimation using passive distributed temperature sensing. doi:10.1029/2009WR008272, Water Resources Res. PDF version
Sayde, C., C. Gregory, M. Rodriguez, N. Tufillaro, S. Tyler, N. van de Giesen, M. English, R. Cuenca and J. Selker. Feasibility of soil moisture monitoring with fiber optics. 2010. doi:10.1029/2009WR007846. Water Resources Res. PDF version
Menon, M., R.T. Parratt, C. Kropf and S.W. Tyler. 2010. Impact of Vegetation on nitrate accumulations in desert vadose zones. Journal of Arid Environments. Doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2010.03.005 PDF version
Tyler, S.W., J.S. Selker, M.B. Hausner, C.E. Hatch, T. Torgersen and S. Schladow.2009. Environmental temperature sensing using Raman spectra DTS fiber optic methods. Water Resources Res. doi: 10.1029/2008WR007052.PDF version
Saito, L., M. Walker, W. Miller and S. Tyler. 2009. Ecohydrology as an undergraduate degree: Challenges in developing an interdisciplinary major. Journ. of College Science Teaching. 38(4):40-45.
Tyler, S.W., S. Burak, J. McNamara, A. Lamontagne, J. Selker and J. Dozier. 2008. Spatially distributed temperatures at the base of two mountain snowpacks measured with fiber-optic sensors. Journal of Glaciology. 54(187):673-679. PDF version
Webb, G., S. W. Tyler, D. Van Zyl, J. Collard, T. Halihan and T. Fenstemaker. 2008. Field scale analysis of flow mechanism in highly heterogeneous mining media. Vadose Zone Journal.7(2):899-908. PDF version
Moffett, K., S. Tyler, T. Torgersen, M. Menon, J. Selker and S. Gorelick. 2008, Distributed temperature sensing of thermal trends and anomalies in the bed of an intertidal salt marsh and channel: The tidal thermal blanket effect. Environ. Science and Tech. 42(3); 671-676. DOI: 10.1021/es071309m. PDF version