Tuesday, May 16
11 - 12
Cobo Ambassador
Is there a water quality crisis and are we risking our health in the Great Lakes region? Water is one of the most crucial of all the world’s life support systems, servicing a sustainable plant, animal and human network. The quality of that water affects our global biohealth. To have high water quality, we need to invest in three areas: 1) advance technology and develop water quality diagnostics. With new methodologies, we can identify emerging hazards and achieve more robust assessment of pollution sources; 2) understand water quality at larger scales impacted by land and climate. This understanding is essential to our future investments for protection and restoration; and 3) focus leadership on improving wastewater treatment, monitoring and moving toward resource recovery. Investing in cutting-edge science is more important than ever to effectively and efficiently mitigate the impacts of an aging infrastructure (or lack thereof) and the global changes underway to improve the biohealth of the planet. More than 100 years ago, cross-border pollution and untreated wastewater impacts led to one of the largest water quality studies implemented in the Great Lakes region. Great Lakes scientists led the way toward a paradigm shift that culminated in the Water Quality Agreement, one of the best compacts in the world. With current threats, Great Lakes scientists once again have an opportunity to lead.
Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research, Michigan State University
Winner of the 2016 Stockholm Water Prize
Dr. Joan B. Rose is an international expert in water microbiology, water quality and public health safety. She is the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University in the departments of Fisheries & Wildlife, and Plant, Soil and Microbiological Science and currently leads the Global Water Pathogens Project, in partnership with UNESCO. Dr. Rose is the winner of the 2016 Stockholm Water Prize. This prestigious award honors those whose work contributes to the conservation and protection of water resources, and to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. Her work addresses the use of new molecular tools for surveying and mapping water pollution for recreational and drinking waters, irrigation, and coastal and ballast waters; assessment of innovative water treatment technology for the developed and developing world; and use of quantitative microbial risk assessment. Rose earned her B.Sc. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Arizona (Tucson) and has published more than 300 manuscripts. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She currently serves on the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board for the Great Lakes. She was the 2001 recipient of the Clarke Water Prize and was recently awarded honorary citizenship in Singapore for her contributions to water quality, water education and Singapore’s water security 4-taps program.
