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Michael Friedel

Graduation Year: 2002

Degree: Ph.D.

Location: Twin Cities

Advisor: John Nieber

Thesis Title:
Simultaneous inverse estimation of coupled water, heat, and solute transport parameters with model validation and predictive analysis: Application to ground-water studies in arid and semi-arid regions of the United States

Job Title: Research Geophysicist, Crustal Imaging and Characterization Team

Job Description:
Michael's current project work involves:

  • Estimating probable amounts of metals in undiscovered deposits
  • Estimating uncertainty in multicomponent reactive transport
  • Estimating uncertainty in predictive debris flow equations
  • Evaluating calibration and prediction methodologies for dual permeable flow and transport in variably saturated media
  • Efficacy of reactive barriers to mitigation mine tailings drainage
  • Hypothesis testing for borehole leakage by inverse methods
  • Inversion of Airborne EM to identify water bearing regions
  • Inverse EM applications for identifying unexploded ordinance
  • Joint inversion of geophysical and groundwater data and models
  • Redistribution of sediment following flooding in Romania
  • Writing 3 chapters for 2nd edition of Unsaturated Zone Hydrology for Scientists and Engineers

Michael has taught courses in ecological risk assessment, multicomponent reactive transport, model calibration and predictive analysis, hydrogeophysics, hydrologic modeling, and vadose zone hydrology. He also works and consults internationally and has been on projects in Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, El Salvador, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Romania, South Africa, and Turkey.

Contact Information:
U.S. Geological Survey
Denver Federal Center
Box 25046, MS 964
Lakewood, CO 80225
Phone: (303) 236-7790
E-mail: mfriedel@usgs.gov
Web site: http://www.michaeljfriedel.com