U of M water expert Deborah Swackhamer elected president of D.C.-based National Institute of Water Resources
Contacts:
Nina Shepherd, Water Resources Center, (612) 599-1148
Patty Mattern, University News Service, (612) 624-2801
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (07/07/2009) — Deborah Swackhamer, co-director of the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center has been named president elect of the National Institutes of Water Resources (NIWR) based in Washington D.C. Swackhamer will assume the one-year appointment Oct. 1 in addition to her regular university duties.
A professor of environmental chemistry in the university’s School of Public Health, Swackhamer also holds the Charles M. Denny, Jr. Chair of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She is internationally known for her research and leadership on persistent organic compounds including PCBs, dioxins and pesticides in the Great Lakes and the exposure of endocrine disruptors and human-induced hormones in lakes and watersheds.
As president of NIWR, Swackhamer will oversee the network of 54 water resources centers located in land grant institutions across the country, as well as the agency’s efforts to coordinate and promote the training and research activities of water quality professionals and researchers in the United States and around the world.
“Each of the country’s water resources centers are critical to getting federal funds into the hands of the best and the brightest university-based researchers -- those researchers developing cutting edge monitoring, restoration and prevention methods that dramatically improve the country’s water supply,” says Swackhamer. “NIWR is the link between the individual state needs and federal water priorities.”
In her role as the university’s Water Resources Center (WRC), Swackhamer manages the research and educational programs within the center and oversees the program that provides funding to researchers studying water resource problems in Minnesota and the Midwest.
The WRC leverages the federal investment into a $4 million annual budget, which is put to work to improve the water quality of Minnesota’s lake, streams, rivers and groundwater. The WRC was ranked among the top five water institutes in the country in its last national review.
WRC is affiliated with the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and University of Minnesota Extension and is located in McNeal Hall on the university’s St. Paul campus. For more information, visit wrc.umn.edu
