Hydrologist, UC Irvine Professor; Senior Water Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology
Jay Famiglietti is a hydrologist, a professor of Earth System Science and of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and the Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, and he was the Founding Director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling (UCCHM) at UC Irvine.
Before joining UCI in 2001, Jay was on the faculty of the Geological Sciences Department at the University of Texas at Austin, where he helped launch the program in climate and the UT Environmental Science Institute.
Jay and his team have been researching and communicating about water and climate change — in academics, in business, in government and to the general public — for over 25 years. He appeared as a featured expert in the water documentary Last Call at the Oasis and in CBS News 60 Minutes. Jay is a frequent speaker, an avid writer and a regular contributor to National Geographic Water Currents and to Huffington Post. His research is often featured in the international news media, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Economist, CNN/Fareed Zakaria GPS and network television news. Jay is a regular guest on National Public Radio, BBC Radio and other public radio shows.
He is currently working on his first book on the disappearance of groundwater resources the world over.