Dr. Stephen J. Cullen is a Senior Vice President and Principal Hydrogeologist.
Dr. Cullen has over 28 years of professional experience in groundwater and soil investigation, monitoring, modeling, and data interpretation at industrial, municipal, and federal project sites.
Dr. Cullen has previously served on the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara, as Associate Research Hydrologist where he was the Lead Scientist at the Vadose Zone Research Laboratory. He also lectured on groundwater and soil environmental contaminant issues in the departments of Geology, Engineering, and Geography.
Dr. Cullen has authored over 75 publications on environmental subsurface modeling, monitoring, and remediation including the widely acclaimed textbook “Handbook of Vadose Zone Characterization and Monitoring”. Dr. Cullen has made numerous presentations on these topics. He was the invited keynote speaker at the First International Congress on the Impacts of Industry on Groundwater in Cernobbio, Italy. Dr. Cullen is noted for his professional contribution in co-authoring the watershed “UC Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) Reports” in 1995 that established the precedent for risk-based closures at petroleum hydrocarbon sites in California based on the natural attenuation and intrinsic degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in the subsurface environment.
Dr. Cullen has provided the technical expert opinion and testimony in the resolution of numerous legal matters involving subsurface contaminant transport, vadose zone characterization, and groundwater monitoring and remediation. Dr. Cullen has served in numerous high-profile legal cases involving a range of environmental issues for clients that range from Fortune 500 companies to governmental entities to smaller family trusts. Dr. Cullen provided the primary expert testimony for a trial defense effort that was named as one of the top 20 defense trial victories in 2002 by the National Law Journal.