Andrew Binley

Professor Andrew Binley is a distinguished academic at Lancaster University, where he is affiliated with the Lancaster Environment Centre within the Faculty of Science and Technology. His extensive career has been dedicated to advancing the understanding of subsurface fluid dynamics, particularly through the integration of geophysical and hydrological approaches. He has held significant leadership roles including Head of the Environmental Science Department (2006-2009) and Associate Dean for Resources in the Faculty of Science and Technology (2012-2018).

Andrew's research focuses on improved understanding of the storage, transport and exchange of fluids within the subsurface environment. His early work targeted the modelling of rainfall runoff processes, which led to the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) methodology (Beven and Binley, 1992) for model uncertainty estimation. This triggered his research path in hydrogeophysics, with a core aim of exploiting data rich geophysical techniques for constraining the uncertainty in hydrological models. An active theme of his research over the past 20 years is the exchange of groundwater and surface water through fundamental, process-based investigations, often driven by the need to understand the fate of legacy nitrate in groundwater. This work has been complemented by research on large-scale vadose zone nitrate storage and delivery to deep groundwater. His research also includes investigation of plant-soil-water interactions, including geophysics-based phenotyping of plant root function and the influence of root development on soil hydraulic properties.

Professor Binley has developed and applied geophysical approaches to a wide range of groundwater-related problems from lab- to field-scale. His most recent publications demonstrate continued innovation in hydrogeophysical methods, with emphasis on electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization techniques, and coupled hydrogeophysical modeling. These works address critical environmental challenges including landslide monitoring, nutrient transport in agricultural landscapes, and sustainable management of water resources in critical zones.

• Frank Frischknecht Leadership Award (2012) for long-term contributions to near-surface geophysics
• Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) (2013)
• Vadose Zone Journal, Associate Editor, Excellence Award (2013)
• Dean's award for Outstanding Contribution to the Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University (2018)
• Vadose Zone Journal Reviewer Excellence Award (2019)
• Water Resources Research Outstanding Reviewer award (2022)

Professor Binley has supervised numerous PhD students with research interests in hydrogeophysics and groundwater hydrology. His research has been generously funded by major organizations including UKRI (NERC, BBSRC and EPSRC), EU, US Department of Energy, US National Science Foundation, and various industrial partners. He has led significant projects such as "Quantifying the combined nutrient enrichment, pathogenic, and ecotoxicological impacts of livestock farming on UK rivers" and "MIDST-CZ: Maximising Impact by Decision Support Tools for sustainable soil and water through UK-China Critical Zone science."

As a key member of the Lancaster Environment Centre, Professor Binley contributes to multiple research groups including the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science, DSI - Environment, Earth Science, Energy Lancaster, and the Sustainable Catchments research group. His work bridges fundamental geophysical research with practical environmental applications, making significant contributions to both scientific understanding and real-world environmental management.