Water Center Graduate Student Fund
Launching Professionals
Graduate students at The Water Center are learning to solve water-related problems in our communities. Gifts to this fund support the students’ needs regarding the costs of their education, such as tuition, books and supplies, stipends, travel to field sites and conferences, publication expenses, and other educational expenses.
Donations to the this fund are instrumental in helping the Center’s students achieve their academic and professional goals. The students are well aware that these generous gifts demonstrate a confidence in the value of their work and their future success, and they rise to that expectation. The students also recognize and are deeply grateful to the donors who make these educational opportunities possible.
Online donations can be made to the Water Center Graduate Student Fund: Click here
Recent Accomplishments:
February 2006—Eija
Vinnari, a Visiting Fellow Scholar 
from
Tampere University of Technology, Finland, and Water Center student, attended
the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation
Joint
Management Conference
in
Salt Lake City.
"My research focuses on the policy issues of providing public water and wastewater services, including pricing of services, asset management and economic regulation. My aim is to develop a governance framework that would enable the provision of water services in a sustainable and cost-efficient way, while maintaining the viability of the infrastructure and taking into account the interests of all stakeholders.
This issue is and will continue to be very significant in the future, especially in the developing countries but also in areas such as the American West. The Joint Management Conference provided an opportunity to learn about state-of-the-art asset management strategies and methods, issues that are about to become relevant in Finland but which has not been researched there yet. With your generous support, I was able to obtain valuable first-hand knowledge on these topics."
December 2005—Stephanic Kampf, a PhD and Water Center student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, was able to attend the American Geophysical Union Meeting in San Francisco.
"For my dissertation research, I am 
studying
integrated hydrology (groundwater-surface water-atmosphere) through experiments
using detailed measurements and models. Part of this research involves measurements
and modeling of an experimental plot. At the AGU meeting, I presented some
of the results of this study in a poster entitled, “Use of an instrumented
planar experimental plot to provide guidance for physically-based hydrologic
modeling.” The session in which I presented this poster was called, “Towards
reducing uncertainty in hydrologic and environmental predictions: Bringing
experimentalists and modelers together.” The conveners of this session
brought together a diverse group of presenters, and we had interesting discussions
about combining measurements and models. People
visiting my poster had many good suggestions, and the session definitely helped
me clarify directions to take with this research."
November 2005—Joe Anderson, a Water Center graduate student in Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, attended the national meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Anchorage, Alaska.
"The annual meeting of the 
American
Fisheries Society is the premier event for fisheries biologists in North America.
Over four days, I attended talks on a wide range of topics, from the feeding
ecology of Japanese char to genomic mapping of Pacific salmon. I interacted
with scientists whose papers I had read over and over. The diversity of interesting
topics broadened my understanding of fisheries biology and provided insight
into what career path I might choose to follow. In addition, I gave an oral
presentation of my thesis research. As this was
my first talk at a national meeting, benefits included practice in public speaking
and gaining research exposure outside of the local region. Indeed, after my
talk a researcher approached me wanting to share some of his results from similar
work in California in order to help me interpret my findings."
May 2005—Mindy Roberts, a PhD candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Water Center student, attended the American Geophysical Union and North American Benthological Society Joint Assembly meeting in New Orleans.
"I am focusing on urban streams from a stream ecology perspective. My
research involves 
how
people’s choices for managing riparian vegetation translate to food resources
for the stream. The North American Benthological Society meeting provides an
opportunity to exchange information with the key people in my research area,
since very few in the Pacific Northwest have considered my dissertation topic.
During the week-long meeting, I attended many presentations
and was able to discuss my research with colleagues from Europe, Alaska, and
the southeastern US, where most of the work is being done. I gave an
oral presentation titled “Effects of Urbanization on Allochthonous Inputs
to Small Puget Sound Lowland Streams.” Thank you again for providing
this opportunity to the Center and to me.
The Water Center Graduate Student Fund: Click here to donate