1st Pan-African Hydrogeology Congress 2025

28 - 30 August 2025

Available online via Zoom

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE 30 JUNE 2025

Preliminary programme:

Speakers:

Professor Cheikh Bécaye Gaye holds a PhD in hydrogeology. He began his professional career in 1977 at the Geology Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University (Dakar, Senegal) where he climbed all the ranks from assistant attaché to full professor of exceptional class, at the time of his retirement in 2015. He has directed more than fifty doctoral theses and counts among his former students many teacher-researchers at various universities in Africa. Professor Cheikh Gaye worked on secondment for 7 years (1999 – 2006) at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna (Austria) as an expert in isotope hydrology, mainly responsible for developing the use of nuclear methods for research and management of water resources in Africa. Professor Gaye ended his professional career as Director General of research at the Ministry of Higher Education and research of Senegal (2014 – 2016). Professor Gaye was elected as a full member of the National Academy of Sciences and Technology of Senegal in 2010 and is currently Vice-Chair and Chair of the section on Fundamental and applied Sciences and Innovation. Professor Gaye is Chair and founding member of the Senegalese IHP Committee and was Vice Chair of the IHP Bureau (2016 – 2018). Professor Cheikh Gaye is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications in referred journals and conference proceedings and served as associate editor of the Hydrogeology Journal for several years.

Prof Alan MacDonald is head of Groundwater at the British Geological Survey leading a team of 20 staff, and Chair of the IAH Network for Groundwater Development (IAH-BGID). Main areas of personal research are water security, particularly with a focus on the impacts of climate change on groundwater and developing groundwater resources to improve water security. Alan had published several books on groundwater, 130 papers, >100 Technical reports, many of them with an African focus. He has led two influential studies for FCDO on the resilience of groundwater to climate change in Africa and South Asia, and a large NERC consortium on the sustainability of rural water handpumps across Africa. Much of Alan’s research has an applied focus, working directly with NGOs, government departments and regulators to support policy and improve practice.

Daniel Olago, a Rhodes Scholar, is Professor of Geology (Environmental Geoscience), and heads both the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi. His research interests span the broad field of environmental geoscience, including geology, paleoclimate and paleoenvironments, water, climate, environment and human linkages with a special focus on eastern Africa. He has been involved in multi-disciplinary research, training and capacity building activities on global environmental change in local, regional and international contexts for a diverse range of stakeholders, from grassroots, through management to policy-making groups and government agencies. Daniel is a member of the International Lake Environment Committee and Fellow of; The World Academy of Sciences, African Academy of Sciences, Kenya National Academy of Sciences, Geological Society of Kenya, and Geochemistry Fellow. His projects include: REACH Programme https://reachwater.org.uk/; Development Corridors Partnership https://developmentcorridors.org/; African Climate and Environment Center – Future African Savannas (AFAS – https://www.afas.africa/); Enhancing and Scaling Up Climate Adaptation for Resilient Infrastructure in Kenya, and; GWS-SENCE: Groundwater Sustainable and Equitable Development under Constraints of Ecosystem Conservation and Saltwater Intrusion Prevention in Large Deltas. He has been a Lead Author for the recent 6^th IPCC Assessment Report and the earlier 4^th report that won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007.