U of A Hydrologist Named AGU Fellow
University of Arizona professor Jennifer McIntosh was named a Union Fellow for her contributions to hydrology by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) late last month. The Union Fellowship is among the AGU’s highest honors and is awarded annually to a cohort of exceptional geophysical scholars whose work has had a sustained impact on the field. Fewer than 0.1% of AGU’s members are elected to the Fellowship each year. A College of Science story published in UA News shared McIntosh’s reaction to this honor.
McIntosh studies water beneath the earth’s crust—the solutes and gases that dissolve in it, the microbial communities that live in it, and its movements throughout geologic history. The earth’s “subsurface,” as McIntosh calls it, is home to groundwater resources and critical minerals, both of which are becoming increasingly important as the US grapples with drought and growing energy needs.
The Fellowship recognizes both scholars’ scientific excellence and their scientific citizenship, which includes leadership, service, mentorship, advocacy and more. McIntosh has advised nearly 80 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. She credited her advisees with being “pivotal in pushing us forward in new directions, discovering new things.”
The AGU established its Union Fellowship program in 1962, to identify experts who could serve as advisors to governmental or other organizations. McIntosh already has experience as a scientific advisor to organizations like the UK Royal Society and the International Atomic Energy Agency, but she hopes her Fellowship will lead to even more opportunities to shape policy and future research.
McIntosh was honored to receive the award and thanked her community of scholars for their support. The Fellowship was “something I never saw in the cards for me,” she told the College of Science reporter. “I appreciate my colleagues and my peer mentoring group of female faculty at the U of A that have supported me and been my cheerleaders."