Iftikhar H. Sabir, Ph.D.

Dr. Iftikhar is an Assistant Professor at the College of Engineering, King Saud University campus at Gassim, Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining this position, he has been working as a member of an expert team of groundwater modeling professionals. He was involved in software development for the solution of groundwater flow and contaminant transport problems, testing and documentation, and technical support for various consulting projects. He spent nine years in Norway in a research position while obtaining his Post Graduate Diploma, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Hydrogeology. He developed a novel synthetic DNA labeling technique with information capacity and high detection sensitivity for tracing multiple contaminants in groundwater. On completion of his Ph.D., he had the opportunity to work with the Norwegian Centre for Soil and Environmental Research on a European Union funded project. Dr. Sabir obtained his B.Sc. Engineering in 1981 and joined the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) where he worked on various Irrigation and Drainage projects for 11 years. During his service, he was deputed with the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) consultant's team for a period of 7 years. He was awarded a British Council Fellowship for pursuing a four months professional training program on Subsurface Pipe (tile) Drainage Design at the Silsoe College, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Bedford, UK.

Fields of Expertise:

·       Groundwater Hydraulics, Flow in Porous Media

·       Geostatistical Analysis of Subsurface Data

·       Optimization of Flow and Transport Parameters 

·       Hydrologic, Pumping Test, and Geochemical Data Analysis

·       Analysis of Chemical and Physical Solute Transport Processes

·       Site Conceptualization and Conceptual Model Design,

·       Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport Characterization, Contaminant Fate and Transport, Groundwater/Surface Water Interactions, Wellhead Capture-Zone Delineation, and Remedial Design Solutions.

·       Constructed Wetlands for Municipal Wastewater Treatment.

Computer Literacy:  

·       Expert of Visual MODFLOW (a Professional Groundwater Modeling Software, which combines MODFLOW, *MODFLOW-SURFACT, MODPATH, MT3D/RT3D, PEST, Zone-Budget (*for Vadose Zone Modeling).

·       Aquifer Test for Graphical Analysis and Reporting of Pumping Test Data

·       Aquachem for Geochemical Data Analysis, Plotting and Modeling

·       AFPM (Aquifer Flow in Porous Media: A Golder Associate’s Program)

·       VARIOWIN (Geo-Statistical Software) for Spatial Data Analysis and Variogram Modeling

·       Excellent knowledge of Preparing On-Line Help with Adobe Frame Maker and Web Works.  

Professional Affiliations                                            

·       Registered Professional Engineer with PEC (Pakistan Engineering Council).

·       Registered Professional Engineer with PEG (Pakistan Engineering Congress).

·       Member of NordSoil Forum (Nordic Network for Ground Remediation)

·       Member of NGF Norsk Geologisk Forenings (Norwegian Geological Forum)

·       Member of IAH (International association of Hydrogeologists)

Publications

1.           Sabir, I. H., Bergedalen, J., 1996: Modeling the Seasonal Variation of Net Recharge to Groundwater. Artificial Recharge of Groundwater (Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Helsinki, Finland, June 3-5, 1996). NHP no. 38, 295-301. http://www.nlh.no/noragric/publications/msctheses/1994.htm

2.           Sabir, I. H., Torgersen, J., Haldorsen, S., Aleström, P., 1999: DNA Tracers with Information Capacity and High Detection Sensitivity tested in Groundwater studies. Hydrogeology Journal, 7 (3): 264-272. http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/10040/bibs/9007003/90070264.htm

3.           Sabir I. H., Torgersen, J., Gaut S., Haldorsen S., Aleström P., Hervé C., Pedersen T.S., Kitterød N.O., 2000: Synthetic DNA tracers: examples of their application in the water related studies. Tracers and Modeling in Hydrogeology (Proceedings of the TraM’2000 International Conference held at Liege, Belgium, May 23-26, 2000). IAHS Publ. no. 262, 159-165. http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs/redbooks/a262/26224.htm

4.           Sabir, I. H., Aleström, P., Haldorsen, S., 2001: Use of Synthetic DNA as new tracers for tracing groundwater and multiple contaminants. Pakistan Journal of Applied Sciences, (ISSN 1607-8926)1(3): 233-238.  http://www.nlh.no/ijvf/publikasjoner/vitenskapelig2001.htm

5.           Sabir, I. H., Mæhlum, T., Kløve, B., 2001: Subsurface-Flow Constructed Wetlands in Cold temperate Climate: Review of Governing Factors, Conservative Modeling and Parameters Estimation.

6.           Sabir, I. H., 2001: 1. Migration of Acetate and Chloride Solutes: Macroscopic dispersion, Retardation, and Degradation: Oslo airport Gardermoen, Norway.

7.           Sabir, I. H., 2001: 2. Design of Regional and Site-specific Groundwater flow models for Solute transport analysis: Oslo airport Gardermoen Norway.          

8.           Sabir, I. H., 2001: 3. Optimisation of Groundwater flow models using automated Inverse technique: Oslo airport Gardermoen, Norway.

9.           Sabir, I. H., 2001: 4. Application of Site-scale model to Experimental site for Estimation of Transport Parameters and degradation rate of Acetate: Oslo airport Gradermoen, Norway

10.        Sabir, I. H., 2001: 5. Simulation of Acetate Transport and Degradation in northern part of the Gardermoen aquifer, Oslo airport Norway.

Activities and Interests 

Traveling: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

Others: Daily News, Reading, Photography, Music, Enjoy working with complex numerical models