News

The Water Institute was pleased to provide funds to sponsor our local children's water festival (Waterloo-Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival) this past spring and two fall festivals this year. The Halton Children's Water Festival and Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority's Children's Source Water Festival both took place the last week of September.

The Water Institute is pleased to announce that the AECOM Graduate Scholarship in Water Research and the Golder Associates Graduate Scholarship in Water Research are being offered this fall to graduate students conducting water research. Each scholarship is valued at $5,000. Only one application package is needed to be considered for both scholarships.

One AECOM graduate scholarship will be awarded to a student in the Faculty of Science and the second scholarship will be awarded to a student in the Faculty of Engineering.

The freshwater team at WWF-Canada has produced assessments of seven watersheds across Canada. The Freshwater Health Assessment was completed on an initial set of seven river systems across Canada with the advice and suport of freshwater experts from across Canada.

Rob de Loë, Water Institute member and Professor of Environment and Resource Studies, shares his H2Opinion in a Water Canada blog/ opinion article Make it Material. He argues for and encourages those of us in the water industry at all levels to be more active participants in the conversation about the materiality of water, so that politicians and policy makers will find water prioritites relevant.

Water is one of the three areas of special focus in research within the new five-year strategic plan announced by the University of Waterloo. The overall goal of the plan is for the University of Waterloo "to emerge as one of the world's top innovative universities". The research being done by members of the Water Institute will contribute to reaching this goal. 

The Water Institute is pleased to be one of the partners in the recently funded Communitech DATA.BASE project. The project will explore technology-driven ways to collect and securely transfer “big” data from remote areas, analyze the data more intelligently, and commercialize data applications across a range of market sectors. 

The University of Waterloo and the Water Institute are pleased to announce a $1.75 million, eight-year commitment from the RBC Foundation. The gift will support the development and implementation of the new collaborative Integrated Water Management (IWM) graduate program that will be available to students beginning this fall. The majority of the funds will be for scholarships (120 over eight years).

Lux Research, an independent research and advisory firm, recently ranked the University of Waterloo 10th in its report on Top Academics and Institutions in Water Research 2013. Waterloo is the first Canadian university on the list, which is topped by two universities in Singapore. Waterloo's recognized strength is infrastructure for water research.

Dr. Josh Neufeld, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, was selected as one of Waterloo Region's 40 Under 40 as announced in the special section of the February 23, 2013 issue of The Waterloo Region Record newspaper. The Record's annual 40 Under 40 special section celebrates the young leaders in our community.