Rob de Loë, Water Institute member and professor in Waterloo’s School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, is the new director of Waterloo’s graduate Collaborative Water Program (CWP).
Professor de Loë, a champion of the CWP since its inception, brings new ideas and a fresh outlook to his role as program director.
“The Collaborative Water Program is a flagship example on campus, and around the world, of a truly interdisciplinary water graduate program,” said de Loë. “My number one priority is to work with the program committee and the Water Institute to ensure the longevity of the program, offer more interdisciplinary opportunities and to strengthen the curriculum.”
As students in the CWP discover, complex water problems often require a breadth of disciplinary expertise to solve them. Professor de Loë is a proponent for the structure of the CWP which allows students to develop deep grounding and expertise in their home departments or schools, while simultaneously learning how to think about water problems in ways that transcend their disciplines.
“We need people with deep disciplinary expertise to tackle our water problems, but we also need people who can work with specialists from other fields, and who can see the ways in which water problems cut across those disciplines,” said de Loë.
The fifth CWP cohort of 48 students completed WATER 601 during the winter term, and will begin WATER 602 in the fall of next year, where they will spend a week studying in the Grand River Watershed.
Visit the Collaborative Water Program page for more information about the program.