Dr. Tissa H. Illangasekare was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board on January 18, 2017, by President Barack Obama.
Dr. Illangasekare presently holds the AMAX Endowed Distinguished Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering position at the Colorado School of Mines. He is also the founding director of the Center for Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes (CESEP), a university/industry/national laboratory collaborative center. His research experience and expertise are in mathematical and numerical modeling of flow and transport in porous and fractured media, saturated and unsaturated zone processes, multiphase flow, carbon storage, modeling of land-atmospheric interaction, remediation of contaminated sites, and application of sensor technologies for environmental and hazard monitoring.
Dr. Illangasekare has served on many national and international advisory boards, including the National Academy of Science’s Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. He has also been a member of several National Research Council committees that include, “Subsurface Contamination at DOE Complexes” and “Management of Certain Radioactive Waste Streams Stored in Tanks at Three Department of Energy Sites.” He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, and is the current President-elect of the International Porous Media Society (InterPore). Dr. Illangasekare is the past editor of Water Resources Research and of Earth Science Review. He is, past co-editor of Vadose Zone Journal. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Soil Science Society of America. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a Professional Hydrologist, Board Certified Environmental Engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers (by eminence), and Diplomate of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. Dr. Illangasekare has published over 175 refereed journal papers and contributed to 15 book chapters. He is the recipient of the 2012 Darcy Medal from the European Geosciences Union (EGU) for outstanding scientific contributions in water resources research and engineering. He was the 2015 recipient of the AGU’s Langbein Lecture Award (Bowie lecture) given in recognition of lifetime contributions to the science of hydrology and received the 7th Prince Sultan Abdulaziz International Prize for Groundwater at the United Nations from the Secretory General in 2016. He was a Shimizu Visiting Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Visiting Professor, Global Climate Energy Program (GCEP) and Department of Earth Resources Engineering at Stanford University.
Dr. Illangasekare received a BSc (Honors) degree in civil engineering (1971) from the University of Ceylon, a M.Eng. degree in hydrology and water resources development from the Asian Institute of Technology (1974), and a Ph.D. (1978) in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. He also received an Honorary Doctorate in Science and Technology from Uppsala University, Sweden.
Dr. Illangasekare resides in Boulder, Colorado.