News

Celebrating the distinguished careers of Water Institute faculty

The Water Institute bids a heartfelt farewell to 11* faculty members retiring in 2024. Their exceptional contributions to water research and education have shaped the lives of hundreds of students and strengthened the University of Waterloo’s reputation as a leader in water research.

While commonly associated with the summer, algal blooms can also persist into the fall. As of late October 2024, blooms were still present along the southern shores of Lake Erie.

Researchers are using bacteria that eat food scraps to create a new kind of fully biodegradable plastic that reduces waste and could be less expensive to manufacture than current plastics are.

Members of Professor Nandita Basu’s Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology Lab presented pioneering strategies to protect Great Lakes waters at the Latornell Conservation Symposium in Vaughan, ON, held from October 8-9, 2024.

The University of Waterloo has claimed the No. 1 position in Canada for water resources and climbed to 24th globally in the 2024 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Rankings of Academic Subjects—its highest position to date. Rising from 25th last year, the ranking underscores the university’s performance and reputation in water resources, a field critical to addressing escalating climate change and water security challenges worldwide.

In a significant investment for Canadian research, the Government of Canada has announced over $182 million to support 224 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRC) at postsecondary institutions across the country.

Dr. Norman Zhou, Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Waterloo, has been awarded the American Welding Society's (AWS) Comfort A. Adams Lecture Award. Named in honor of AWS founder and first President Dr. Comfort A. Adams, this award recognizes distinguished scientists or engineers for a lecture highlighting innovative advancements in welding. Dr. Zhou delivered a lecture on “Nanojoining - A New Frontier in Welding and Joining of Materials” at the 2024 AWS Annual Meeting.

On October 21-22, 2024, researchers from the Solutionscapes project gathered in Waterloo for their third annual meeting to discuss efforts to support Canada’s transition to a net-zero future while enhancing water quality, ecosystem integrity and human well-being.

Dr. Juliane (Julie) Mai, Research Associate Professor who joined the Department Earth and Environmental Science in 2023, has been awarded over $200,000 from Environment and Climate Change Canada as part of the National Adaptation Strategy and Hydrologic prediction and innovation funding program.

In the face of rising urbanization and climate change, coastal cities in Bangladesh are encountering unprecedented challenges in managing their water resources. Traditional approaches to water management often fall short in addressing these complex issues. However, there’s hope on the horizon: Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). Nature-Based Solutions leverage the innate power of nature to address water management challenges.