John D. Bredehoeft

John D. Bredehoeft was an American hydrogeologist who lived from 1933 to 2023 and spent thirty two years at the United States Geological Survey, heading its water research program from 1974 to 1979 and serving as regional hydrologist for the western United States from 1980 to 1985, described by the National Ground Water Association as a giant in groundwater studies. His 1973 paper with George F. Pinder on mass transport in groundwater remained influential in contaminant transport research, and after retiring from the USGS in 1995 he founded the Hydrodynamics Group consulting firm and edited the journal Groundwater from 1992 to 1995. He received the O.E. Meinzer Award in 1975, became a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1979, won the M. King Hubbert Award in 1991 and the Robert E. Horton Medal in 1997, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1994. He received the Penrose Medal in 1997.