News archive - January 2022

Monday, January 31, 2022

A tribute to Water Institute member Bill Taylor

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science website.

Past and present members of the Faculty of Science community are saddened by the news that William David Taylor passed away on January 24, 2022. Bill had a long and distinguished career of service inside and outside the University of Waterloo. He will be remembered with great affection by the many professionals that he trained as students, and by the many colleagues who had the pleasure to work with him in research and administration.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

New economic model finds wetlands provide billions in filtration value

A University of Waterloo press release.

Southern Ontario wetlands provide $4.2 billion worth of sediment filtration and phosphorus removal services each year, keeping our drinking water sources clean and helping to mitigate harmful and nuisance algal blooms in our lakes and rivers.

A new study from the University of Waterloo uses economic valuation to help us understand the importance of Southern Ontario’s wetlands for water filtration – particularly as these sensitive ecosystems continue to be lost by conversion to agriculture or urban development.

Monday, January 24, 2022

Talking tiny: Virtual workshop explores the game-changing potential of nanotechnology in the water sector

Today’s water industry faces many challenges — from addressing hard-to-remove contaminants in drinking supplies to making wastewater treatment as energy-efficient as possible, cutting costs and carbon emissions. Could nanotech hold the answers?

Dr. Sushanta Mitra, executive director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, believes so. “We are able to utilize the surface properties in a much, much better way than conventional technologies,” he explains. That ability to modify materials at the atomic level opens up a world of possibilities.

Monday, January 24, 2022

Commending the Servos Group's efforts to track the spread of COVID-19

Early in the pandemic, Water Institute member, Professor Mark Servos realized that his group’s experience with wastewater and molecular biology studies with fish could be applied to measuring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Applied Public Health Chair in Healthy environments for climate change and northern food security announced

Kelly Skinner, associate professor in the School of Public Health Sciences and Water Institute member, was appointed a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Applied Public Health Chair in Healthy environments for climate change and food security in northern Canada.

The prestigious position, one of only seven awarded, includes $1.15 million in funding over five years for highly focused research that improves health equity for citizens in Canada and around the world.