Jasper A. Vrugt
Encyclopedia
Jasper A. Vrugt is a Dutch scientist/engineer/applied mathematician
known for his work in the earth sciences: surface hydrology
, soil physics
, hydrogeophysics, hydrometeorology
, and geophysics
. Vrugt is an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine
and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Earth System Science. He also holds a part-time appointment as associate professor at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Science (CGE).
to work with Jan Hopmans, a world leading soil physicist. This work led to the development of two- and three-dimensional root water uptake models, and was one of the first vadose zone
modeling inverse modeling studies that used a three-dimensional description of the subsurface for parameter estimation using distributed computing.
(LANL), a position which comes with complete research freedom. In 2006, Vrugt was appointed as J. Robert Oppenheimer (JRO) distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow, also at LANL
. Two main contributions during his JRO appointment include a novel concept of self-adaptve multimethod evolutionary optimization for single and multiple objective parameter estimation, and an adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme (DREAM) for sampling of complex high-dimensional posterior distributions. Vrugt’s creative idea of running multiple search algorithms concurrently that learn from each other through information exchange using a common population of points is perhaps the most elegant way of exploiting the strengths of individual search methods to address the No Free Lunch Theorem
. Numerical experiments demonstrate that AMALGAM and DREAM outperform existing evolutionary and MCMC approaches. These methods are especially designed to take maximum advantage of distributed computing facilities, and are currently being applied to a wide range of inference problems
2010, Vrugt was appointed Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. "Vrugt is the first hire at UC-Irvine for the new Environmental Institute initiative, which will bring together scientists from different domains to identify new research needed for an improved understanding of society's response to a changing climate, and for environmental science to better respond to societal needs."
Spring 2011, Vrugt taught ENGRCEE20 at the University of California, Irvine, a course on Introduction to Matlab and its application for engineering analysis and problem solving involving: roots of nonlinear equations, systems of equations, least-squares fitting of curves to data, and integration of ordinary differential equations. He was enjoyed by his students for his humor, informative course, and engaging lectures.
(GSA) for outstanding achievement in contributing to geologic knowledge through original research which marks a major advance in the
earth sciences. The recipient of this medal automatically becomes GSA Fellow the subsequent year. Just last year, he received the 2010 James B. Macelwane Medal
of the American Geophysical Union
(AGU) for outstanding contributions in surface hydrology, soil physics, and hydrometeorology, and was elected AGU Fellow. He was recognized with the 2010 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the European Geophysical Union (EGU),. Vrugt is the first scientist to receive all three honors: the Donath Medal (GSA), James B, Macelwane Medal (AGU) and the Outstanding Young Scientist Award (EGU).
He was named one of the Elsevier Top 50 most talented young people from the Netherlands in 2009. and he received an Early Career Award in Soil Physics from the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 2007, the Hydrology Prize 2004-2006 from the Dutch Hydrological Society (NHV) in 2007 and a J. Robert Oppenheimer Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship from LANL in 2006.
He has published 60+ papers in peer reviewed international journals (and 5 bookchapters), and is Associate Editor of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vadose Zone Journal and Water Resources Research
.
He is on the Editorial Board of Environmental Modeling & Software, and Guest-editor (with Shlomo P. Neuman) for a special issue in Vadose Zone Journal (issue 5, pp. 915–989) on Parameter Identification and Uncertainty Assessment in the Unsaturated Zone.
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
known for his work in the earth sciences: surface hydrology
Surface-water hydrology
Surface-water hydrology is a field that encompasses all surface waters of the globe...
, soil physics
Soil physics
Soil physics is the study of soil physical properties and processes. It is applied to management and prediction under natural and managed ecosystems. Soil physics deals with the dynamics of physical soil components and their phases as solids, liquids, and gases. It draws on the principles of...
, hydrogeophysics, hydrometeorology
Hydrometeorology
Hydrometeorology is a branch of meteorology and hydrology that studies the transfer of water and energy between the land surface and the lower atmosphere....
, and geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
. Vrugt is an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Earth System Science. He also holds a part-time appointment as associate professor at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Science (CGE).
Early years
Vrugt was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He graduated from The University of Amsterdam where he received his MS (Cum Laude) and PhD degree (Cum Laude). During the final stage of his MS degree, he spent 6 months at the University of California, DavisUniversity of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
to work with Jan Hopmans, a world leading soil physicist. This work led to the development of two- and three-dimensional root water uptake models, and was one of the first vadose zone
Vadose zone
The vadose zone, also termed the unsaturated zone, is the portion of Earth between the land surface and the top of the phreatic zone i.e. the position at which the groundwater is at atmospheric pressure . Hence the vadose zone extends from the top of the ground surface to the water table...
modeling inverse modeling studies that used a three-dimensional description of the subsurface for parameter estimation using distributed computing.
Career
Upon completion of his doctorate, Vrugt started working as a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
(LANL), a position which comes with complete research freedom. In 2006, Vrugt was appointed as J. Robert Oppenheimer (JRO) distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow, also at LANL
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
. Two main contributions during his JRO appointment include a novel concept of self-adaptve multimethod evolutionary optimization for single and multiple objective parameter estimation, and an adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme (DREAM) for sampling of complex high-dimensional posterior distributions. Vrugt’s creative idea of running multiple search algorithms concurrently that learn from each other through information exchange using a common population of points is perhaps the most elegant way of exploiting the strengths of individual search methods to address the No Free Lunch Theorem
No free lunch theorem
In mathematical folklore, the "no free lunch" theorem of Wolpert and Macready appears in the 1997 "No Free Lunch Theorems for Optimization." Wolpert had previously derived no free lunch theorems for machine learning...
. Numerical experiments demonstrate that AMALGAM and DREAM outperform existing evolutionary and MCMC approaches. These methods are especially designed to take maximum advantage of distributed computing facilities, and are currently being applied to a wide range of inference problems
2010, Vrugt was appointed Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. "Vrugt is the first hire at UC-Irvine for the new Environmental Institute initiative, which will bring together scientists from different domains to identify new research needed for an improved understanding of society's response to a changing climate, and for environmental science to better respond to societal needs."
Spring 2011, Vrugt taught ENGRCEE20 at the University of California, Irvine, a course on Introduction to Matlab and its application for engineering analysis and problem solving involving: roots of nonlinear equations, systems of equations, least-squares fitting of curves to data, and integration of ordinary differential equations. He was enjoyed by his students for his humor, informative course, and engaging lectures.
Professional
In his relatively young career, Dr. Vrugt has already been honored multiple times. Most recently, he received the 2011 Donath Medal of the Geological Society of AmericaGeological Society of America
The Geological Society of America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. The society was founded in New York in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchcock, John R. Proctor and Edward Orton and has been headquartered at 3300 Penrose...
(GSA) for outstanding achievement in contributing to geologic knowledge through original research which marks a major advance in the
earth sciences. The recipient of this medal automatically becomes GSA Fellow the subsequent year. Just last year, he received the 2010 James B. Macelwane Medal
James B. Macelwane Medal
A medal awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union "to be awarded annually for significant contributions by outstanding young scientists." It is named after James B. Macelwane, a Jesuit priest and one of the pioneers of seismology...
of the American Geophysical Union
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
(AGU) for outstanding contributions in surface hydrology, soil physics, and hydrometeorology, and was elected AGU Fellow. He was recognized with the 2010 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the European Geophysical Union (EGU),. Vrugt is the first scientist to receive all three honors: the Donath Medal (GSA), James B, Macelwane Medal (AGU) and the Outstanding Young Scientist Award (EGU).
He was named one of the Elsevier Top 50 most talented young people from the Netherlands in 2009. and he received an Early Career Award in Soil Physics from the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 2007, the Hydrology Prize 2004-2006 from the Dutch Hydrological Society (NHV) in 2007 and a J. Robert Oppenheimer Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship from LANL in 2006.
He has published 60+ papers in peer reviewed international journals (and 5 bookchapters), and is Associate Editor of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vadose Zone Journal and Water Resources Research
Water Resources Research
Water Resources Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Geophysical Union. AGU states that WRR is an "interdisciplinary journal integrating research in the social and natural sciences of water."...
.
He is on the Editorial Board of Environmental Modeling & Software, and Guest-editor (with Shlomo P. Neuman) for a special issue in Vadose Zone Journal (issue 5, pp. 915–989) on Parameter Identification and Uncertainty Assessment in the Unsaturated Zone.
Awards and recognition
- Fellow, Geological Society of AmericaGeological Society of AmericaThe Geological Society of America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. The society was founded in New York in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchcock, John R. Proctor and Edward Orton and has been headquartered at 3300 Penrose...
(GSA) - Editors' Choice Award, Water Resources ResearchWater Resources ResearchWater Resources Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Geophysical Union. AGU states that WRR is an "interdisciplinary journal integrating research in the social and natural sciences of water."...
, American Geophysical Union - Fellow, American Geophysical UnionAmerican Geophysical UnionThe American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
- Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal), Geological Society of America
- Young Outstanding Scientist Award, European Geophysical Union
- James B. Macelwane MedalJames B. Macelwane MedalA medal awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union "to be awarded annually for significant contributions by outstanding young scientists." It is named after James B. Macelwane, a Jesuit priest and one of the pioneers of seismology...
ist, American Geophysical Union
- Early Career Award in Soil Physics, Soil Science Society of AmericaSoil Science Society of AmericaThe Soil Science Society of America , is a scientific and professional society of soil scientists, principally in the U.S. but with a large number of non-U.S. members as well...
- Hydrology Prize 2004 - 2006, Netherlands Hydrological Society (NHV)
- Elsevier Top 50 of most talented young people in the Netherlands
Photographs
External links
- Vrugt's Publications
- jasper.eng.uci.edu
- University of California, Irvine
- University of Amsterdam, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)
- Nederlandse Hydrologische Vereniging (NHV) / Dutch Hydrology Society
- Water Resources Research
- Vadose Zone Journal
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
- Elsevier: Environmental Modeling & Software