U.VA. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST GEORGE HORNBERGER
	ELECTED TO ENGINEERING ACADEMY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 24 -- George Hornberger, a
hydrologist and the Ernest H. Ern professor of environmental
sciences, has been named to the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE) for his distinguished contributions to the field of
engineering.  Election to the NAE is among the highest honors given
to engineers.  Hornberger's election brings to seven the number of
University professors in the NAE.  
	Hornberger, whose research has ranged widely across many
disciplines, studies the movement and transformation of natural and
artificial substances as they are carried by water through streams
or in groundwater.  Hornberger is being honored by the NAE for the
development of hydrogeochemical models and their application to
helping solve environmental problems.
	Among Hornberger's current projects is a study of the
effects of atrazine, a common pesticide, on the water systems of the
Shenandoah Valley after it washes off farmland.  In particular, he
and his colleagues are attempting to understand how atrazine may
attach to suspended particles and thus move differently through the
soil than free atrazine does. 
	Hornberger joins 77 other honorees, including Microsoft
founder William Gates, III, who were elected to membership in the
NAE this year.  The total membership in the NAE, which was
established by Congress in 1964, is now 1,841.
	Hornberger has been the recipient of numerous awards,
including election earlier this month to the first group of fellows
of the Association for Women in Science.  He was cited for
"exemplary commitment to the achievement of equity for women in
science and technology." 
	In 1995, Hornberger was given the John Wesley Powell Award
from the U.S. Geological Survey and was also elected to the American
Geophysical Union.  He is the editor of "Water Resources Research,"
the nation's premier journal for publications in the hydrological
sciences.  Hornberger joined the environmental sciences department
in 1970, and served as department chairman from 1979 to 1984.
	Hornberger received an undergraduate degree in civil
engineering, but subsequently trained as an hydrologist at Stanford
University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1970.
###
February 23, 1996
	REPORTERS AND EDITORS:  Hornberger can be reached at (804)
924-6762 or (804) 924-7761.  E-mail:  gmh3k@virginia.edu