Mary C. Hill, PhD
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - GeologyI came to KU following a 33-year long career with the US Geological Survey in New Jersey until 1987 and then in Colorado. In that position I was a major developer of the MODFLOW, the most widely used groundwater model in the world. My research focused on how to use data to build models, and how to quantify model uncertainty. I came to KU in 2014 to bring science into policy realms, and see this path as providing enormous opportunities for students. I am focusing on the food, energy, water nexus and its importance to the future existence of people on earth. Water is essential and this focus allows students to develop hydrogeological expertise in the context of exciting and immediate societal questions.
Education
Ph.D., Civil Engineering-Water Resources, Princeton University
MSE, Civil Engineering - Water Resources, Princeton University
Master's Candidate, Civil Engineering-Water Resources, Michigan State University
B.A., Geology and Business Administration (double major), Hope College
Teaching
Courses taught since joining KU:
- HON 120 Honors Seminar Food, Energy, Water, the Environment, and Public Policy -- Opportunities and Tradeoffs (F15, F16, F17)
- GEOL 171 Earthquakes and Natural Disasters (F16, S17, F17, S18)
- GEOL 751/CEAE 752 Physical Hydrogeology (F17)
- GEOL758/CE731 Applied Groundwater Modeling (S15, S16, S17, S18, S19 (as GEOL 591/791 ))
- GEOL 591/791 Inverse Modeling in Geophysics and Hydrogeology (F15, F16)
- GEOL Graduate student seminar (F14)
Teaching Interests
- Interactive
- Empowering students to perform well in exciting
- Challenging careers
Research
At KU I seek ways to enable people to understand the environment upon which their lives and livelihoods depend. I do this by working with students and colleagues to visualize data and models in new ways that take advantage of widely accessible devices such as tablets and cell phones. I also explore how to clearly show economic opportunities provided by sustainable use of natural resources.
Research Interests
- Uncertainty analysis
- Numerical modeling
- Risk
- Sensitivity analysis
- Hydrogeology
- Visualization
- Economics
Service
I seek to (1) expand quantitative aspects and synthesize the strengths of the environmental side of the Department of Geology, and (2) bring broad recognition to the very talented faculty in the Department of Geology.
Selected Publications
Borgonovo, E. Lu, X. Plischke, E. Rakovec, O. & Hill, M. C. (2017). Making the most out of a hydrological model data set: Sensitivity analyses to open the model black-box. Water Resources Research. DOI:10.1002/2017WR020767
Belcher, W. R., Sweetkind, D. S., Faunt, C. C., Pavelko, M. T., & Hill, M. C. (2017). U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5150, 74 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20165150. An update of the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system transient model, Nevada and California.
LaVigna, F. Hill, M. C., & Rossetto, R. (2016). Groundwater modelling of the surface-mined Tivoli-Guidonia basin (Rome) and lessons for model development design.
Hill, M. C., Kavetski, D. Clark, M. Ye, M. Arabi, M. Lu, D. Foglia, L. & Mehl, S. (2016). Practical use of computationally frugal model analysis methods. Groundwater. DOI:10.1111/gwat.12330
Lu, D. Ye, M. Hill, M. C., Poeter, E. P., & Curtis, G. P. (2014). A computer program for uncertainty analysis integrating regression and Bayesian methods. Environmental Modelling & Software, 60, 45–56.
Sheets, R. A., Hill, M. C., Haitjema, H. M., Provost, A. & Masterson, J. P. (2014). Simulation of water-table aquifers using specified saturated thickness. Ground Water. DOI:10.1111/gwat.12164
Poeter, E. P., Hill, M. C., Lu, D. Tiedeman, C. R., & Mehl, S. (2014). UCODE_2014, with new capabilities to define parameters unique to predictions, calculate weights using simulated values, estimate parameters with SVD, evaluate uncertainty with MCMC, and more (Integrated Groundwater Modeling Center Report Number GWMI 2014-02).
Laniak, G. F., Olchin, G. Goodall, J. Voinov, A. Hill, M. C., Glynn, P. Whelan, G. & Hughes, A. (2013). Integrated environmental modeling: A vision and roadmap for the future. Environmental Modelling and Software, 39, 3-23. DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.09.006
Selected Presentations
Hill, M. C., Barron, R. Pfromm, P. Wu, H. & . (08/04/2018). Using Local Energy to Complete the Agricultural Nitrogen Cycle in a Wind-Energy-Rich, Limited-Transmission Region. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Power and Energy Systems (IEEE-PES). Portland, OR, USA
Barnhart, K. Tucker, G. Doty, S. Hill, M. C., Rossi, M. Shobe, C. & Glade, R. . (06/01/2018 - 06/30/2018). Uncertainty in the prediction of erosion on geologic time scales. 96th International Conference on Environmental Modeling and Software "Modeling for Sustainable Food, Energy, Water Systems". Fort Collins CO
Hill, M. & Barron, R. . (12/11/2017). A Nuclear Waste Management Cost Model for Policy Analysis . American Geophysical Union. New Orleans, LA. Available Here
Ebert-Uphoff, I. Thonpson, D. R., Demir, I. Gel, Y. Hill, M. C., Karpatne, A. Guereque, M. Kumar, V. Cabral, E. &, P. S. (12/11/2017). Building Bridges Between Geoscience and Data Science through Benchmark Data Sets . American Geophysical Union (AGU). New Orleans, LA. Available Here
Hill, M. C., Pahwa, A. Rogers, D. Roundy, J. & Barron, R. . (12/11/2017). Developing Community-Focused Solutions using a Food-Energy-Water Calculator, with Initial Application to Western Kansas . American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. New Orleans, LA. Available Here
Porter, M. Hill, M. C., Pierce, S. Gil, Y. & Pennington, D. . (12/11/2017). Formulating qualitative features using interactive visualization for analysis of multivariate spatio-temporal data . American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. New Orleans, LA. Available Here
Hill, M. C., Rogers, D. Brookfield, A. Roundy, J. Stotler, R. Tsvatanov, T. Sanderson, M. & . (07/19/2017). A Food-Energy-Water Calculator, with application to Western Kansas . Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering - Power and Energy Systems (IEEE-PES). Chicago, IL
Banks, A. & Hill, M. C. (12/31/2016). Integrating models that depend on variable data . American Geophysical Union. San Franciso, CA. Available Here
Hill, M. C. (12/31/2016). Making Earth-human system modeling easier and more interesting. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. San Franciso, CA. Available Here
Tucker, G. Adams, J. M., Doty, S. G., Gasparini, N. S., Hill, M. C., Hobley, D. E., Hutton, E. Intanbulluoglu, E. & Nudurupati, S. S. (12/31/2016). Using the Landlab toolkit to evaluate and compare alternative geomorphic and hydrologic model formulations (Invited) . American Geophysical Union. San Franciso, CA. Available Here
Hill, M. C. (12/31/2015). Integrating Many Data Types into Optimized Inverse Modeling: An Example from Hydrology. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. San Franciso, CA. Available Here
Hill, M. C. (12/31/2015). Teaching Freshmen About Water, Energy, Food, the Environment, and Public Policy in an Interactive Classroom . American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. San Franciso, CA. Available Here
Hill, M. C., Ye, M. Foglia, L. Dan, L. & . (12/31/2014). Testing Predictive Skill of Groundwater Flow and Transport Simulations. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Hill, M. C., Faunt, C. C., Belcher, W. R., Sweekind, D. S., & . (12/31/2014). Using a three-dimensional hydrogeologic framework to investigate potential sources of springs in the Death Valley regional groundwater flow system. Technical Presentation, AGU.
Hill, M. C., Belcher, W. Sweetkind, D. Faunt, C. C. & . (10/31/2014). Using a three-dimensional geologic framework to investigate a curious modeling result for the death valley regional groundwater flow system. Technical Presentation, GSA.
Hill, M. C., Faunt, C. C., Belcher, W. R. & Sweetkind, D. S. (09/30/2014). Using a three-dimensional hydrogeologic framework to investigate potential sources of springs in the Death Valley regional ground water flow system. Technical Presentation, Midwest Groundwater Meeting.
Rakovec, O. Hill, M. C., Clark, M. P., Weerts, A. H., Uijlenhoet, R. & Teuling, A. J. (04/30/2014). Exploring how parameter importance to prediction change in parameter space. Technical Presentation, SIAM.
Rakovec, O. Hill, M. C., Clark, M. P., Weerts, A. H., Uijlenhoet, R. & Teuling, A. J. (04/30/2014). Exploring how parameter importance to prediction changes in parameter space. Poster, CSDMS.
Rakovec, O. Hill, M. C., Clark, M. P., Weerts, A. H., Teuling, A. J., Borgonovo, E. & Uijlenhoet, R. . (12/31/2013). A New Computationally Frugal Method for Sensitivity Analysis of Environmental Models. Technical Presentation, AGU.
Foglia, L. Hill, M. C. & Mehl, S. W. (12/31/2013). Evaluating Processes, Parameters and Observations Using Cross Validation and Computationally Frugal Sensitivity Analysis Methods. Technical Presentation, AGU.
Hill, M. C., Kavetski, D. Clark, M. Ye, M. Arabi, M. Lu, D. Foglia, L. Mehl, S. & . (12/31/2013). What can decision makers achieve from computer simulations of environmental systems? Technical Presentation, AGU.
Hill, M. C., Foglia, L. Mehl, S. W. & Burlando, P. . (10/31/2013). Evaluating model structure adequacy: The case of the Maggia Valley, southern Switzerland and consequences for simulating coupled hydrologic models. Technical Presentation, GSA.
Selected Grants
Hill, Mary C, Harris, Ted, Multivariate, spatio-temporal data analysis and interactive visualization to address harmful cyanobacterial blooms and water quality in Kansas, CLAS Research Excellence Initiative, $18,000, Submitted 11/03/2017 (01/20/2018 . University (KU or KUMC).
Selected Awards & Honors
Fellow
American Geophysical Union
2016
Lifetime Achievement Award
National Science Foundation (NSF) Community Surface Dynamic Modeling System (CSDMS)
2016
International Hydrology Prize Dooge Medal
International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), UNESCO, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
2015
Promotion to ST, highest level for US government scientists
USGS
2007
M. King Hubbert Award
National Ground Water Association
2005
Meritorious Service Award
USGS
2004
Fellow
GSA (Geological Society of America)
2003
Distinguished Darcy lecturer
National Groundwater Associations.
2001
Walter L. Huber Engineering Research Prize
American Society of Civil Engineers
2000
