Every year Students of the Water Institute Graduate Section (SWIGS) impress with their enthusiasm, professionalism, and commitment to water stewardship.
They organize best-in-class educational workshops, networking opportunities, social events, writing cafés, and community outreach activities, to name a few, on top of their graduate studies.
Annual elections for the 2021-22 SWIGS executive committee were recently held and we are deighted to welcome the incoming team!
Meet the team
Narasimman Lakshminarasimman, Chair
Narasimman Lakshminarasimman is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is specializing in wastewater treatment. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, reading, and going out for a walk.
As a member of SWIGS Narasimman Lakshminarasimman immensely benefitted from and enjoyed the workshops and social events organized by SWIGS last year and is very much looking forward to working as a team and putting together such events going forward.
Lauren Banks, Vice-Chair Academics
Lauren Banks is a PhD candidate in the Biology Department at the University of Waterloo. Her research is focused on groundwater influence on stream biofilms across space and time. Prior to taking up a PhD, she lived in Southeast Asia working for a research eNGO where she contributed to research on sustainable aquaculture, which involved not just environmental considerations, but social and economic ones too.
As Vice-Chair Academic, she is excited to use her multidisciplinary experience and broad research interests to source speakers and facilitators with wide-ranging water expertise, both locally and from around the world, for sessions, academic workshops, and panel discussions.
Blessing Medon, Vice-Chair Operations
Blessing Medon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is passionate about water, especially the distribution of safe water to developing and deprived communities. Her research focuses on developing passive sampling techniques to model the bioavailability of persistent micro contaminants in water. She is a proponent for the strategic use of education to spur practical solutions to inequities such as the lack of safe water and sanitation in developing countries.
As vice-chair of operations she has the opportunity to support every executive role on the SWIGS committee. She also connects with the wider SWIGS community through the SWIGS newsletter and highlights all the great things SWIGS is up to.
Navya Nair, Vice-Chair Outreach (External)
Navya V Nair is a PhD student in School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development (SEED). She recently completed her master’s degree in environmental studies in Sustainability Management. She is studying the vulnerability and viability of small-scale fisheries in Chilika Lagoon (India). Her research interests broadly include water quality analysis, wastewater treatment, coastal fisheries, microbial fuel cell and bio-energy generation.
As an Outreach chair for SWIGS, she engages students with activities related to water related issues, build partnerships as well as collaborative events and spreads awareness on water conservation and ecological oversights. She loves to stay up to date and connect with UW students to hear about their thoughts/opinions and arranging activities.
Arisha Imran, Co-Vice Chair Outreach
Arisha is an MSc student in the Department of Biology and a member of the WATER research lab group, where she studies lakes in the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northern Alberta. Her work focuses on using water isotope and water chemistry data to explore flooding and drying trends in the delta. She is passionate about fieldwork and making science accessible to the general public. As a new member of SWIGS, she is excited to engage with the students and the community to raise awareness about water concerns and the importance of water conservation.
Rodrigo Curty Pereira, Vice-Chair Social
Rodrigo Curty Pereira is a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management. His research focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities that have limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Brazil. There's nothing he likes more than just spending quality time with his friends.
As SWIGS' Vice-Chair Social he expects to help building a sense of community among the students in the Water Collaborative Program, across all faculties and cohorts.
Kevin
B.
White, Vice-Chair
Conference
Kevin B. White is a PhD student in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences and a member of the Groundwater Geochemistry & Remediation research group where he works on the development of novel analytical techniques to assess environmental impacts and evaluate remediation strategies at contaminated mine sites.
Kevin spent the last year on SWIGS as the Collaborative Water Program Liaison and had the opportunity to interact with graduate students involved in water-related research from a variety of different departments across campus. This year he is serving as the Vice-Chair Conference and is enthusiastic about organizing the annual interdisciplinary University of Waterloo World Water Day event.