Rodriguez-Iturbe to receive Bowie Medal

Princeton's Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will receive the 2009 William Bowie Medal, the highest honor awarded by the American Geophysical Union.

Presented annually since 1939, the medal acknowledges an individual for outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research. He will receive the award at the 2009 AGU fall meeting Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco.

Rodriguez-Iturbe came to Princeton in 1999 after serving as the head of the civil engineering department at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the movement of water through ecosystems, landscapes and the atmosphere.  

The Bowie Medal was established in 1939 in honor of William Bowie, who served as the first AGU president (1919-22), for his "spirit of helpfulness and friendliness in unselfish cooperative research," according to the AGU.

In April, Rodriguez-Iturbe was one of six recipients of the 2009 Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award. The honors were the first of an annual award presented to scientists whose work has helped advance the biodiversity of life on planet Earth.