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Alan MacDonald’s Biography

• 2018 : Individual Merit Scientist (IMP3)
• 2012 : Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee
• 2006 : Principal Hydrogeologist BGS Edinburgh
• 2001 : PhD, University College London, Community Water Supplies from Mudstones
• 1999 – 2006 : Senior Hydrogeologist BGS Edinburgh
• 1996 – 1999 : Hydrogeologist, WaterAid Oju Community Water Supply project Nigeria
• 1992 – 1996 : Hydrogeologist, BGS Wallingford
• 1992 : MSc (dist.) Hydrogeology, University College London
• 1991 : BSc (Hons) 1st Class, Geophysics, Edinburgh University

Research interests

• International groundwater development and management — particularly in developing countries in the context of poverty reduction and water security
• The resilience of groundwater systems to climate change and abstraction
• African groundwater and water security
• Groundwater and catchment science: floodplain hydrogeology, groundwater & flooding, upland and glaciated catchments
• Providing science and data to underpin groundwater management in the UK (aquifer properties, groundwater vulnerability mapping, nitrate contamination, groundwater monitoring networks, groundwater chemistry baseline)

Current projects and collaborations

• 2016 –2018 : Monitoring the impact of the 2015/16 El Nino event on water supplies in the Ethiopian Highlands
• 2015 – ongoing :: Groundwater futures for Sub-Saharan Africa
• 2015 – ongoing :: understanding the reasons for poor functionality in groundwater hand pumps in rural Africa
• 2012 – ongoing :IGB Groundwater Resilience: A research programme aimed at strengthening the evidence base linking groundwater resources, climate variability and abstraction in the Indo-Gangetic basin
• 2011 – ongoing :Glacier monitoring: monitoring and characterising glacier hydrology in the BGS observatory at Virkisjökull, Iceland with a particular emphasis on groundwater
• 2011 – ongoing : Characterising groundwater surface water interactions in theEddleston catchment: with Dundee University
• Baseline Scotland: a joint BGS/SEPA project to characterise the baseline chemistry and residence time of groundwater in Scotland

Published outputs

Professional associations

• Chair of the
• 2012 : Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee
• 1997 : Chartered Geologist, Fellow of the Geological Society and Ordinary Fellow of the Edinburgh Geological Society