Student Admission Free for 2015 USU Spring Runoff Conference
Anne Castle, former U.S. Department of Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, headlines a slate of top water leaders at USU's 2015 Spring Runoff Conference March 31-April 1. Image courtesy Interior Department.
Anne Castle, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, headlines a slate of top water leaders presenting at Utah State University’s 11th annual Spring Runoff Conference March 31-April 1 at the university’s Eccles Conference Center.
The two-day gathering, coordinated by the USU Water Initiative, features the tandem symposia, “Water Body Connectivity and the Clean Water Act” and “Environmental Flows in a Time of Drought.”
“This year, we take on two of the nation’s most critical water issues,” says Chuck Hawkins, professor in USU’s Department of Watershed Sciences and USU Ecology Center, who serves as conference chair. “We’re hosting a range of renowned water scientists and engineers to probe these topics.”
Student participation in the two-day gathering is free but all participants are encouraged to register online at the conference website. Cost to professionals is $100.
“We recognize students have busy class and study commitments, but we encourage them to take advantage of as much of the conference as their schedules allow.” Hawkins says. “This is an incredible opportunity for students to hear from top national water scholars.”
Keynote speaker for the gathering is Lynn Ingram, professor of earth and planetary science and geography at the University of California, Berkeley, who presents “The West without Water,” Wednesday, April 1, at noon in the ECC Auditorium. Her talk, held in conjunction with USU Natural Resources Week, is free and open to the public.
In addition to Castle and Ingram, conference speakers include Hawkins, Robert Alder, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; Laurie Alexander, National Center for Environmental Assessment; Walt Baker, Utah Department of Environmental Quality; Hans Paerl, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Taylor Hawes, The Nature Conservancy; Don Ostler, Upper Colorado River Commission; Jennifer Pitt, Environmental Defense; Clint Alexander, ESSA Ltd.; Kevin Bestgen, Colorado State University; Katrina Grantz, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Carly Jerla, Colorado River Supply and Demand Study, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Jack Schmidt, USU Department of Watershed Sciences.
A full conference agenda is online.
Special to this year’s gathering is a screening of the 2013 feature documentary Watermark Tuesday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in the ECC Auditorium. Produced by filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier and photographer Edward Burtynsky, the award-winning film features stories from around the globe of people’s relationship with water. The screening, free and open to the public, is hosted by USU’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and the Utah Film Center.
This year’s conference is sponsored by the Utah Water Research Laboratory of USU’s College of Engineering, the Quinney College of Natural Resources, USU’s Department of Watershed Sciences, the USU Ecology Center and iUTAH.
Established in 2003, the USU Water Initiative fosters multi-disciplinary sharing of water-related research and ideas throughout the campus and community.
Related links:
Contact: Chuck Hawkins, 435-797-2280, chuck.hawkins@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
Registration is open for USU's 2015 Spring Runoff Conference March 31-April 1. Student participation is free for the university’s premier, annual water research conference.
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