Aaron I. Packman

Associate Professor

A314 Technological Institute
2145 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

E-mail address: a-packman@northwestern.edu
Phone: (847) 491-9902
Fax: 4011(847) 491-9902
Website: Research Home Page

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• B.S., Washington University, Mechanical Engineering
• M.S., California Institute of Technology, Environmental Engineering Science
• Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Environmental Engineering Science

Research

My research focuses on environmental and microbial transport processes, with particular emphasis on understanding the basic processes that control interfacial transport in aquatic systems and the coupling of physical transport processes with biological and biogeochemical processes. I seek to define critical structure-transport-transformation relationships in dynamic natural environments such as rivers and surface-attached microbial communities (biofilms). My work is highly collaborative and encompasses basic fluid mechanics, particle transport and morphodynamics, microbiology, and aquatic and surface chemistry. Important applications include contaminant transport and water quality, microbial habitat conditions and benthic microbial ecology, nutrient and carbon cycling, ecosystem degradation and restoration, control of biofilm-based infections, and the transmission of waterborne disease.

Teaching Activities

• GEN_ENG 205-2  Engineering Analysis II
• CIV_ENG 260  Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering
• CIV_ENG 440  Environmental Transport Processes
• CIV_ENG 516  Seminar in Environmental Engineering and Science

Professional Activities

• Searle Junior Teaching Fellow (2001-2002)
• Associate Editor, Water Resources Research
• Editorial Board, International Journal of Sediment Research
• Board of Directors, International Association for Sediment Water Science
• UNESCO International Hydrological Programme, Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions and Nutrient Behavior in River Corridors, Invited Panelist (2005)
• NSF/DOE Workshop, Water: Challenges at the Intersection of Human and Natural Systems, Invited Panelist (2004)

Honors and Awards

• ASCE Huber Research Prize (2008)
• NIH Career Award (K25) (2006)
• McCormick Excellence Award (2006)
• Searle Junior Teaching Fellow (2001-2002)
• NSF CAREER Award (1999)

Selected Publications

• Chen, C., Lau, B. L. T., Gaillard, J.-F., and Packman, A.I., 2009, Temporal evolution of pore geometry, fluid flow, and solute transport resulting from colloid deposition, Water Resources Research, 45, W06416, doi:10.1029/2008WR007252
• Chen, C., Packman, A.I., and Gaillard, J.-F. 2008, Pore-scale analysis of permeability reduction resulting from colloid deposition, Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L07404, DOI:10.1029/2007GL033077.
• Battin, T.J., Kaplan, L.A., Findlay, S., Hopkinson, C.S., Marti, E., Packman, A.I., Newbold, J.D., and Sabater, F., 2008, Biophysical controls on organic carbon fluxes in fluvial networks, Nature Geoscience, 1, 95-100, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo101.
• Marion, A., Packman, A.I., Zaramella, M., and Botticin, A., 2008, Hyporheic flow in stratified beds, Water Resources Research, 44, W09433, DOI: 10.1029/2007WR00607
• Wörman, A., Packman, A.I., Marklund, L., Harvey, J.W., and Stone, S.H., 2007, Fractal topography and subsurface water flows from fluvial bedforms to the continental shield, Geophysical Research Letters, 34(7), L07402, DOI: 10.1029/2007GL029426
• Boano, F., Packman, A.I., Cortis, A., Revelli, R., and Ridolfi, L. 2007, A continuous time random walk approach to the stream transport of solutes, Water Resources Research, 43, W10425, DOI: 10.1029/2007WR006062
• Arnon, S., Gray, K.A., and Packman, A.I., 2007, Biophysicochemical process coupling controls nitrogen utilization by benthic biofilms, Limnology and Oceanography, 52(4), 2007
• Gaillard, J.-F., Chen, C., Stonedahl, S.H., Lau, B.L.T., Keane, D.T, and Packman, A.I., 2007, Imaging of colloidal deposits in granular porous media by x-ray difference micro-tomography, Geophysical Research Letters, 34(18), L18404, DOI: 10.1029/2007GL030514 [Cover article]
• Arnon, S., Packman, A.I., Peterson, C.G., and Gray, K.A., 2007, Effects of overlying velocity on periphyton structure and denitrification, JGR-Biogeosciences, 112, G01002, doi:10.1029/2006JG000235.
• Searcy, K.E., Packman, A.I., Atwill, E.R., and Harter, T., 2006, The capture and retention of Cryptosporidium oocysts in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 72(9), doi:10.1128/AEM.00344-06, 6242-6247 [Cover article].
• Wörman, A., Packman, A.I., Marklund, L., Harvey, J.W., and Stone, S.H., 2006, Exact three-dimensional spectral solution to surface-groundwater interactions with arbitrary surface topography, Geophysical Research Letters , 33(7), L07402, doi:10.1029/2006GL025747.
• Cortis, A., Harter, T., Hou L., Atwill, E.R., Packman, A.I., and Green, P.G., 2006, Transport of Cryptosporidium parvum in porous media: Long-term elution experiments and continuous time random walk filtration modeling, Water Resources Research , 42, W12S13, doi:10.1029/2006WR004897.
• Searcy, K.E., Packman, A.I., Atwill, E.R., and Harter, T., 2006, Deposition of Cryptosporidium oocysts by stream-subsurface exchange, Applied and Environmental Microbiology , 72(3), 1810-1816.
• Packman, A.I., Marion, A., Zaramella, M., Chen, C., Gaillard, J-F, and Keane, D., 2006, Development of layered sediment structure and its effects on pore water transport and hyporheic exchange, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution: Focus , 6(5-6), DOI: 10.1007/s11267-006-9057-y.
• Ryan, R.J., and Packman, A.I., 2006, Changes in streambed sediment characteristics and solute transport in the headwaters of Valley Creek, an urbanizing watershed, Journal of Hydrology , 323(1-4), doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.06.042, 74-91.