Director chosen for University of Florida Water Institute

March 14, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A professor and chairwoman of the University of Florida’s agricultural and biological engineering department has been appointed the first director of the university’s newly established Water Institute.

Wendy Graham, an expert on evaluating and modeling the impacts of industrial and agricultural land use on groundwater and surface water, will start May 15.

Graham said she plans to spend her first months working to build the institute’s portfolio of projects. She plans discussions with state agencies, including the Florida departments of Environmental Protection, Agriculture and Health, and national agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Her goal: To create interdisciplinary partnerships among faculty and graduate students that match Florida’s needs with state and national funding sources.

“Florida has abundant water, but we also have a burgeoning population and a very sensitive ecosystem,” Graham said. “Understanding our water cycle and the carrying capacity of our watersheds — and how that depends on available and emerging technologies — is key to developing a sustainable system.”

Win Phillips, UF’s vice president for research, said Graham brings the right combination of skills to the challenging task of building the institute.

“With her expertise in the science and engineering issues surrounding water and her experience as a department chair, Dr. Graham brings a unique blend of research and management experience to this position,” Phillips said. “We’re extremely pleased she has agreed to lead this important new institute.”

Graham began her career at UF in 1989 as an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, becoming an associate professor in 1994 and a full professor in 1999. She was named chair of the agricultural and biological engineering department in 2003.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida in 1981 and her doctorate in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989.

Graham’s selection is the second significant development surrounding the institute this month. .

The institute was founded last year in response to increasingly scarce and threatened freshwater supplies in Florida, the United States and the world.

Its mission is to forge research links and create synergies among faculty and graduate students at work on diverse water-related research, not only in the sciences but also in the humanities and law. The goal is to foster innovative and original solutions to complex water-related problems — problems that are often as much about people as they are about an essential yet dwindling natural resource.