Mike started his education at UCLA (the University Closest to Larkin Avenue; also known as Joliet Junior College) where he got his Associates in Science. He went on to earn his Bachelors in Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a minor in Atmospheric Sciences. After a summer position with the Illinois State Water Survey working on the Dissolved Oxygen Monitoring Project in the summer of 2016, he went on to pursue his Masters of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa. (Don't worry, he roots for the Illini.) Mike started in his current position with the ISWS in the Groundwater Science section in the Fall of 2019. Today, he is the Principle Investigator for the partnership between the Imperial Valley Water Authority and Co-Principle Investigator on the East St. Louis IDOT project. In addition to these main projects, Mike serves as a groundwater modeler for other projects in the section. Mike's research interests include modeling and exploring novel model structures to enable better simulations and forecasts of groundwater flow and transport dynamics.