John A. Cherry

John A. Cherry holds geological engineering degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and the University of California, Berkley, and a Ph.D. in hydrogeology from the University of Illinois. He was a faculty member at the University of Manitoba for four years before joining the faculty at the University of Waterloo in 1971 where his research focused on field studies of the migration and fate of contaminants in groundwater and groundwater remediation. He retired from the University of Waterloo in 2006 and was granted the title Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2007.

 

He co-authored the textbook “Ground Water” with R.A. Freeze (1979) and co-edited and coauthored several chapters in the book “Dense Chlorinated Solvents and Other DNAPLs in Groundwater” (1996). In addition to research concerning subsurface contaminant behavior, he has participated in the development of several technologies for groundwater monitoring and remediation and co-holds several patents. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has received awards for groundwater contamination research from scientific and engineering societies in Canada, the United States, and the U.K. He held the Research Chair in Contaminant Hydrogeology at the University of Waterloo (1996-2006) and is currently the Director of the University Consortium for Field-Focused Groundwater Contamination Research, established in 1988, and is an adjunct professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph.

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Dr. Cherry received the Stockholm Water Prize in 2020 for his discoveries that revolutionized the science of groundwater contamination and pollution.