Water Institute Establishes Science Advisory Council

June 4, 2012
The Water Institute of the Gulf has formed a science and engineering advisory council that will independently review the institute's programs and work. The council comprises nine experts with national and international expertise on coastal and deltaic systems research.

BATON ROUGE, La., June 4, 2012 – The Water Institute of the Gulf has formed a science and engineering advisory council that will independently review the institute's programs and work.

The council comprises nine experts with national and international expertise on coastal and deltaic systems research. Several have worked on projects specific to the Gulf Coast. In addition to peer review, the group will make recommendations directly to Chip Groat, Ph.D., the institute's president and CEO.

"Peer review is an essential element to ensure true scientific rigor, and the advisory council will play an important role to validate the independence of the Water Institute," says Groat. "The members are extremely talented and offer a broad area of expertise."

The advisory council members are:

  • Gregory Baecher, Ph.D., engineering professor at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering. An expert on the reliability of water resources infrastructure including dams and levee systems, Baecher also has experience with actuarial issues related to flood and natural disaster insurance.
  • Virginia Burkett, Ph.D., chief scientist for climate and land use change for the U.S. Geological Survey. Burkett studies the impact of climate change in coastal areas. She previously served as chief of the USGS National Wetlands Research Center's forest ecology branch. She is also a former director-secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
  • Robert A. Dalrymple, Ph.D., civil engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University. Dalrymple researches coastal engineering, wave mechanics and fluid mechanics, among others. He was a member of Louisiana's 2012 Coastal Master Plan Science and Engineering Board.
  • Margaret Davidson, J.D., director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Services Center. Davidson works at the intersection of coastal science and policy. Areas of emphasis include sustainable economies, coastal hazard mitigation and the climate adaptation.
  • Jos Dijkman, engineer with the Deltares water research institute in The Netherlands until his recent retirement. Currently, he is an independent consultant. Dijkman is a flood management specialist and served on Louisiana's 2012 Coastal Master Plan Science and Engineering Board.
  • Peter Goodwin, Ph.D., civil engineering professor, founder and director of the University of Idaho's Center for Ecohydraulic Research. An expert on sedimentation and river management, Goodwin served on the Science Board of the Louisiana Coastal Area Science and Technology Program formed after Hurricane Katrina.
  • Shirley Laska, Ph.D., sociology professor emerita at the University of New Orleans and founder of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response, and Technology at the University of New Orleans. Laska studies applied research with natural and technological hazards, and disaster response in both urban and rural communities. She has conducted studies of residential flood mitigation and hurricane response, among others.
  • Rick Luettich, Ph.D., distinguished professor and director of the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences and Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters. Luettich specializes in modeling coastal systems. Among his accomplishments is the development of a widely used storm surge model that has become a cornerstone of storm surge studies following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
  • Fred Sklar, Ph.D., director of the South Florida Water Management District's Everglades division. Sklar's expertise includes landscape ecology, coastal and wetland ecology, ecosystem modeling, adaptive management for wetland restoration and computer applications in environmental science. His modeling experience was used in preparing the 2012 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan.

The Water Institute of the Gulf was formed in 2011 as a not-for-profit, independent research institute dedicated to advancing the understanding of coastal and deltaic systems. In collaboration with public, private and academic partners, The Water Institute of the Gulf was founded to preserve and protect the U.S. Gulf Coast environment, a major source of natural and industrial resources, while developing and sharing water management technology worldwide. For more information, visit www.thewaterinstitute.org.

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