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Faculty Team and Research Topic Selected for the 2017 Water Institute Graduate Fellows Program ,

A team of eight Water Institute Affiliate Faculty, led by Dr. Rachata Muneepeerakul, has been selected to develop and implement the Water Institute Graduate Fellows (WIGF) program’s 2017 cohort. Their interdisciplinary proposal was selected from among four submitted by UF faculty teams representing multiple colleges.

The WIGF program supports interdisciplinary teams of doctoral student Fellows and their faculty advisors as they conduct research in an emerging area of water science. The 2017 cohort follows three previous cohorts (consisting of 8 faculty and 20 students) addressing freshwater wetlands, coastal water resources, and Amazon dams.

The goal of the 2017 WIGF cohort research is to understand how to induce resilience of water-subsidized human/natural systems. This will be done through a comprehensive systems analysis of interbasin water transfer into the Tempisque River watershed in Costa Rica.

The 2017 WIGF faculty will each serve as major advisor to a doctoral student Fellow. Dr. Christine Angelini will focus on wetland ecology and restoration. Social science will be led by Dr. Jeffrey Johnson. Dr. Greg Kiker will support development of an integrated modeling platform. Biophysical and social modeling will be conducted by Dr. Rachata Muneepeerakul. Dr. Rafael Muñoz-Carpena will work on environmental hydrology. Climatological models of precipitation will be under the direction of Dr. Peter Waylen.

Other faculty on the team are Tom Ankersen, J.D. for environmental law and policy, and Dr. Alfredo Garcia for dynamics and control of social-ecological systems.

Advertisements have been posted nationally to recruit six highly motivated PhD students to receive these Fellowships to work on this project. Graduate students with a keen interest in this interdisciplinary research topic are encouraged to apply by January 16, 2017. For more information and to apply, go to http://waterinstitute.ufl.edu/WIGF/2017Cohort/overview_2017.html