Faculty Awarded 2015 Water Institute Graduate Fellows (WIGF) Program

A team of faculty led by Dr. David Kaplan was awarded the 2015 Water Institute Graduate Fellows (WIGF) Program. The WIGF program, which is awarded to an interdisciplinary group of UF faculty every two years, aims to promote interdisciplinary faculty-graduate fellow research in an emerging area of water science. The ADN team’s proposal, “Hydrologic transformation in the Amazon basin: reconciling economy, society, and the environment in the world’s largest watershed” brings together ADN faculty from the biophysical and social sciences to address the complex and interactive set of impacts brought about by the construction and operation of dams and other hydraulic infrastructure in the Amazon. The WIGF faculty team includes David Kaplan (ESSIE), Stephanie Bohlman, and Denis Valle (School of Forest Resources and Conservation), Kai Lorenzen (School of Natural Resources and Environment), and Cynthia Simmons and Bob Walker (Geography). The award supports six new PhD students beginning in 2015, and the team plans to begin recruiting students this fall. The ADN was initiated in 2012 as an interdisciplinary effort to provide an integrated understanding of the two-way links between energy production, environmental conservation and human well-being in the Amazonian region. The program is hosted in the Tropical Conservation and Development Program in the Center for Latin American Studies, which accumulates more than 30 years of experience on training, research and capacity-building in the region. At UF, the program is coordinated by Dr. Simone Athayde (TCD/Latam) with strong support from TCD Director Dr. Bette Loiselle and other senior Faculty. In Brazil, the program is led by Drs. Carolina Doria and Elineide Marques (UNIR and UFT), who have been central to the development of the ADN since its inception. Other ADN partner organizations include three additional Brazilian Universities (UFPA, UFAC, UNEMAT) and the USGS Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. Most recently the ADN organized the international symposium: “Engineered Landscapes: Society, the Environment, and Shifting Values in Brazil and the U.S.” which can be viewed online at: International Symposium Engineered Landscapes.