He also served as a professional witness in various notable environmental cases including Love Canal and the Woburn groundwater contamination incident.

He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for leadership in groundwater modeling applied to diverse problems in water resources.

Pinder's principal research interest is in the development of numerical methods to solve complex problems pertaining to groundwater contamination and supply.

He has published approximately one hundred and thirty five papers in refereed journals in the area of quantitative analysis of subsurface flow and transport, as well as twelve books.

Pinder was featured as a character in the movie A Civil Action, based on the Woburn toxic waste case and starring John Travolta.