Titles

• Professor of Hydrology, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Tech

Biography

Jan M.H. Hendrickx is Professor of Hydrology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science and a Research Hydrologist at the Geophysical Research Center of New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico. After graduating from the St. Vincentius Gymnasium Wernhoutsburg in Zundert, he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering and Irrigation from the Agricultural University Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 1975. He spent one year in Campina Grande, northeastern Brazil, as a volunteer for OXFAM and designed inexpensive trickle irrigation system with wind powered water supply as well as rainwater harvesting cisterns. After another year as an Irrigation and Drainage Engineer employed by Agrar und Hydrotechnik Gmbh in Tanzania and Germany, he became a Research Irrigation and Drainage Engineer for the Agricultural University Wageningen stationed at the Office du Niger in Niono, Mali, from 1979 to 1981. He conducted research on the water requirements of rice and sugarcane and established a soil physics laboratory. From 1981 to 1984 he was a Research Assistant at the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture of New Mexico State University. He conducted research on the spatial variability of soil moisture and the water requirements of trickle irrigated chile peppers under guidance of Dr. Peter Wierenga. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Soil Physics in 1984 and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Agricultural Engineering of Texas A&M University with Dr. John Nieber. In 1985, he became Head of the Department of Soil Physics and Hydrology of the Netherlands Soil Survey Institute in Wageningen, The Netherlands. With his colleague Dr. Louis Dekker and others he conducted research on the effects of unstable wetting on water flow and solute transport through field soils. Here he started to employ electromagnetic induction measurements for soil hydrology. From 1988 through 1990 he was stationed at the International Waterlogging and Salinity Research Institute in Lahore, Pakistan. With his team of Dutch and Pakistani researchers he conducted research on optimal management strategies of water quantity and quality in irrigated areas. He also established a soil physics laboratory.

In the fall of 1990, Dr. Hendrickx joined the faculty of the Hydrology Program of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science and the Geophysical Research Center at New Mexico Tech as, respectively, assistant professor and research hydrologist. He was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and to professor in 2001. He teaches graduate courses in Vadose Zone Hydrology, Groundwater Hydrology, Introduction to Remote Sensing, and Flow and Transport in Hydrologic Systems.

Education

• PhD, New Mexico Sate University, 1984
• BS, Agricultural University of Wagenigen
• MS, Agricultural University of Wagenigen