USACE IWR Honored at Joint UCOWR - NIWR Annual Conference

Photo of Bob Pietrowsky, Director of IWR (right), receiving award from UCOWR Executive Director Christopher Lant.

Bob Pietrowsky, Director of IWR (right), receives award from UCOWR Executive Director Christopher Lant.

ALEXANDRIA, VA - July 29, 2011. The U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources (IWR) was recognized with an award formally naming IWR as a "Friend of UCOWR" during the joint Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) and National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference held in Boulder, Colorado on July 12-14, 2011. "Friend of UCOWR" is a designation awarded to an organization or individual that has a demonstrated record of substantive contributions to the field of water resources. Receiving the award for IWR was IWR Director Bob Pietrowsky.

Mr. Pietrowsky delivered a plenary presentation on international water resources issues on Thursday, July 14. He moderated a session on IWR-specific programs that included presentations by Drs. Hal Cardwell, Will Logan, and Joe Manous. They spoke about IWR activities of interest to the UCOWR and NIWR academic communities. The conference theme was "Planning for Tomorrow's Water: Snowpack, Aquifers, and Reservoirs." Mr. Pietrowsky's presentation is available for download (pdf, 6.03 MB).

IWR has been an affiliate member of UCOWR for more than 35 years. The Institute entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NIWR in 2009 to facilitate collaborative research and work efforts between the member institutions of NIWR and IWR.

More about Universities Council on Water Resources

The Universities Council on Water Resources consists of over 90 member universities and organizations throughout the world. UCOWR's main objectives include to:

Facilitate water-related education at all levels
Promote meaningful research and technology transfer on contemporary and emerging water resources issues
Compile and disseminate information on water problems and solutions
Inform the public about water issues with the objective of promoting informed decisions at all levels of society

To achieve these goals, member institutions engage in education, research, public service, international activities, and information support for policy development related to water resources. UCOWR holds an annual conference that provides a forum to explore key and timely topics of interest to water resources researchers and educators. UCOWR also publishes the "Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education", presenting both scholarly work and current water resources news.

More about National Institutes for Water Resources

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) leads the NIWR network at the federal level where it administers the State Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Program. This program was authorized by Section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 and is a Federal-State partnership which:

Plans, facilitates, and conducts research to aid in the resolution of State and regional water problems
Promotes technology transfer and the dissemination and application of research results
Provides for the training of scientists and engineers through their participation in research
Provides for competitive grants to be awarded under the Water Resources Research Act
The state water resources research institutes authorized by the Act are organized as the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR)

NIWR cooperates with the USGS in establishing total programmatic direction, reporting on the activities of the Institutes, coordinating and facilitating regional research and information and technology transfer, and in operating the NIWR-USGS Student Internship Program.

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