Martinus Theodorus van Genuchten

Martinus Theodorus "Rien" van Genuchten (born 13 February 1945) is a Dutch soil physicist and hydrologist known for his research on water flow and solute transport in unsaturated porous media. His work has contributed to soil science, vadose zone hydrology, groundwater hydrology, contaminant transport and the numerical modeling of subsurface processes.

Van Genuchten is particularly associated with the soil hydraulic model introduced in his 1980 paper A Closed-form Equation for Predicting the Hydraulic Conductivity of Unsaturated Soils. The formulation, especially when combined with the pore-size distribution theory of Yechezkel Mualem, became widely known as the Mualem–van Genuchten model and is extensively used to describe soil-water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. In 2023 he received the Wolf Prize in Agriculture for his research on water flow and contaminant transport in soils.

Early life and education Van Genuchten was born on 13 February 1945 in Vught, in the southern Netherlands. He grew up on a small family farm and was the third of eleven children.

Although his formal name is Martinus Theodorus van Genuchten, he has generally been known as Rien van Genuchten. In a 2024 autobiographical article, he explained that he was called "Rini" as a child before the name gradually became "Rien".

Career Early career in the United States Near the completion of his doctorate, van Genuchten joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Princeton University, where he worked from 1975 to 1978. His research there included numerical solutions for water flow and contaminant transport in variably saturated porous media.

His research collaborations at UFRJ have included studies of radioactive materials, contaminant transport, waste disposal and flow through carbonate rocks.

At the time he received the 2023 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, van Genuchten was serving as a professor in UFRJ's Department of Nuclear Engineering. FAPERJ identified him in February 2023 as a professor of that department, while the Wolf Foundation formally listed "The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil" as his "affiliation at the time of the award".

Later versions of HYDRUS have incorporated processes including root-water uptake, chemical reactions, nonequilibrium transport and multicomponent solute systems.

Applications Van Genuchten's theoretical and computational work has been applied to agricultural, hydrological and environmental problems involving irrigation, salinity, groundwater recharge and pollutant transport. 2023 – Wolf Prize in Agriculture, awarded "for his groundbreaking work in understanding water flow and predicting contaminant transport in soils".

At the time of the 2023 Wolf Prize, van Genuchten was a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; FAPERJ identified him in that position, and the Wolf Foundation listed The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as his affiliation at the time of the award.

He has also been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America.

Selected publications Van Genuchten has authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific publications on soil hydraulic properties, water flow, solute transport, contaminant hydrology and numerical modeling.

Selected publications include:

van Genuchten, M. Th.; Davidson, J. M.; Wierenga, P. J. (1974). "An Evaluation of Kinetic and Equilibrium Equations for the Prediction of Pesticide Movement Through Porous Media". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 38: 29–35. van Genuchten, M. Th.; Wierenga, P. J. (1976). "Mass transfer studies in sorbing porous media: I. Analytical solutions". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 40 (4): 473–480. van Genuchten, M. Th.; Wierenga, P. J. (1977). "Mass transfer studies in sorbing porous media: II. Experimental evaluation with tritium". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 41 (2): 272–278. van Genuchten, M. Th. (1980). "A Closed-form Equation for Predicting the Hydraulic Conductivity of Unsaturated Soils". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 44 (5): 892–898. . van Genuchten, M. Th.; Tang, D. H.; Guennelon, R. (1984). "Some exact solutions for solute transport through soils containing large cylindrical macropores". Water Resources Research. 20 (3): 335–346. . Šimůnek, J.; van Genuchten, M. Th.; Šejna, M. (2008). "Development and Applications of the HYDRUS and STANMOD Software Packages and Related Codes". Vadose Zone Journal. 7 (2): 587–600. . Šimůnek, J.; van Genuchten, M. Th.; Šejna, M. (2016). "Recent Developments and Applications of the HYDRUS Computer Software Packages". Vadose Zone Journal. 15 (7). . Šimůnek, J.; Brunetti, G.; Jacques, D.; van Genuchten, M. Th.; Šejna, M. (2024). "Developments and applications of the HYDRUS computer software packages since 2016". Vadose Zone Journal. 23 (4): e20310. . van Genuchten, M. Th. (2024). "Rien van Genuchten: A short autobiography". Vadose Zone Journal. 23 (4): e20322. .