Cardenas Named 2025 BDL Lecturer
December 8, 2024
In 2025, Jackson School of Geosciences Professor Bayani Cardenas will be going on a world tour — giving talks at institutions around the world as the 2025 Birdsall-Dreiss and LaMoreaux International Distinguished Lecturer (BDL). The Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America (GSA) announced Cardenas as the upcoming BDL lecturer in September. He already has 50 talks scheduled in nine countries, which he plans to deliver in person.“It’s pretty surreal,” Cardenas said. “It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The international talks presented as part of the BDL lectureship are funded by GSA’s LaMoreaux fund and are referred to as LaMoreaux Lectures. Founded in 1978, the BDL Lectureship provides funding for outstanding scientists working in the field of hydrogeology to visit other institutions and give talks about their research. There are no applications for the position. Instead, each year a panel of former BDL lecturers reviews nominations and makes their choice solely on the reputation of prospective candidates for their research excellence and ability to communicate.
Cardenas holds the J. Nalle Gregory Regents Professorship in Geological Sciences in the Jackson School’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. His research examines hydrologic flow and transport processes in a variety of scales and settings, from Arctic permafrost to tropical reefs.
Cardenas is the third BDL lecturer from The University of Texas at Austin. Previous UT lecturers are Charles Kreitler (1985) and Bridget Scanlon (2007). The lectureship runs from January to December of 2025.