ISSE Staff
Jack C. Parker
Research Professor
Contact Information:
Civil and Environmental Engineering
The University of Tennessee
62 Perkins Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-2010
Office Phone: (865) 974-7718
Email: jparker@utk.edu
Ph.D., Soil Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1980
B.S., Soil Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1975
Dr. Jack C. Parker is an ISSE Research Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering responsible for research on subsurface fluid flow and reactive chemical transport.
Prior to joining the University of Tennessee, Parker served for six years as a Distinguished Research Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory after 12 years as president of the consulting company Environmental Systems & Technologies, Inc., which he founded. He started his career in academia as a Professor of Contaminant Hydrology at Virginia Tech for 15 years and as a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
Dr. Parker has directed many research and consulting projects involving the modeling of subsurface contaminant transport in aqueous, gaseous and/or nonaqueous liquid phases at refineries, terminals, manufacturing plants and other facilities. He is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher with over 200 technical publications and has served on numerous expert panels, advisory and review boards, and delegations for government agencies, professional groups, private industry and others. He has taught academic and professional courses and has presented workshops and invited seminars on modeling of subsurface contaminant transport in 15 countries. Computer models he developed have been employed in over 30 countries and he has served as an expert witness in numerous civil actions involving groundwater contamination with hydrocarbons and organic solvents.
Dr. Parker’s research has focused on the development and testing of models for multiphase flow and reactive chemical transport, inverse modeling, analysis of prediction uncertainty, and decision/design/cost optimization. He has developed comprehensive constitutive models for relative permeability-saturation-capillary pressure relationships that are used widely in contaminant hydrology and petroleum engineering applications and is particularly interested in the development of upscaled constitutive models for fluid flow, mass transfer and reaction kinetics that can provide a practical basis for simulation of large-scale heterogeneous systems. In addition to environmental remediation problems, Dr. Parker is interested in the application of advanced computational methods to develop efficient, cost effective and environmentally acceptable recovery of unconventional fossil energy sources, such as oil shale, and for in situ extraction of mineral resources by solution mining.
Selected Publications
Zhang, F., G. T. Yeh, J. C. Parker, S. C. Brooks, M. N. Pace, Y.-J. Kim, P. M. Jardine, and D. B. Watson. A reaction-based paradigm to model reactive chemical transport in groundwater with general kinetic and equilibrium reactions, J. Contam. Hydrol., 2006.
Parker, J.C. and F. Zhang, Efficient formulations of heat and mass transfer in oil shale retort models, Proc. 26th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines, Golden Colorado, October 19-21, 2006.
Park, E. and J.C. Parker, Evaluation of an upscaled model for DNAPL dissolution kinetics in heterogeneous aquifers, Adv. in Water Resources., 28, 1280-1291, 2005.
Sleep, B., C. Shackelford, J. Parker, T. Early, R. Landis,M. Malusis, M. Manassero, G. Newman, R. Puls and T. Sullivan, Performance prediction for permeable reactive barriers, In C. C. Chien et al. (eds), Barrier Systems for Environmental Contaminant Containment and Treatment, CRC Press. 2005.
Parker, J.C. and E. Park, Field-scale DNAPL dissolution kinetics in heterogeneous aquifers, Water Resources Research, vol 40, W05109, doi:10.1029/2003WR002807, 2004.
Fisher, L. S, D. Cole, J. Blencoe, G.R. Moline, J. Parker, T.J. Phelps. 2003. High pressure flow-through column for assessing subsurface carbon sequestration. Proc. 2nd National Conf. on Carbon Sequestration. Washington, DC. April, 2003.
Sleep, B.E., C.R. Faust, N.D. Durant, J.C. Parker, J.G. Guarnaccia, L. Sehayek and M.R. Harkness, Modeling fate and transport of chlorinated organic compounds in the subsurface, In: C.C. Chien et al. (eds), Environmental Modeling and Management: Theory, Practice and Future Directions, DuPont, 2003.
Parker, J. C., Physical processes affecting natural depletion of volatile chemicals in soil and groundwater, Vadose Zone Journal, 2, 222-230, 2003.
Parker, J. C., Volatile chemical transport, biodecay and emission to indoor air, Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation, 23, 107-120, 2003.
Parker, J. C., Inverse modeling to estimate NAPL plume release timing, J. Contam. Hydrol., 45, 303-327, 2000.