FEW Nexus Workshop on Integrated Science, Engineering, and Policy: A Multi Stakeholder Dialogue

For a short summary of the workshop, click here.

Date: January 26-27, 2017

Building on previous efforts, such as the TAMUS/Future Earth Nexus symposium in Washington, DC, (Lawford and Mohtar, 2015) and the recent NSF-funded FEW workshops, the symposium will bring together leading researchers from selected, relevant fields to accomplish the following:

• Provide input on the nature, goals, and structure of the FEW nexus community research agenda, particularly as these relate to configuring synergistic collaborations in an effort to both strengthen existing and fostering new ones between local, national and international partners;
• Identify the core research themes and research questions in the context of the Nexus of Water-Energy-Food resources, as these relate to climate change, resilience, vulnerability, and risk reduction;
• Develop the conceptual framework to address these research questions, building on previous efforts to create a national platform for Water–Energy–Food nexus research and policy.

Symposium workshops will create small working groups in several nexus dimensions, with the goal of establishing the synergistic research teams who will work together to develop joint FEW research proposals and projects to NSF, NIFA among other national and international funding agencies.

Key issues to be addressed by the symposium include:

• The identification of interdisciplinary research agendas involving engineering, agriculture, geoscience, social, behavioral and economic sciences; and
• Need for new research and data collection approaches to enhance longitudinal research capable of modeling and monitoring the processes associated with changes in climate change resiliency, vulnerability, and risk perception.

For more information contact:  wefnexus@tamu.edu

International Scientific Committee 

Monty Alger, Director, Institute of Natural Gas Research, Pennsylvania State University

Anik Bhaduri, Executive Director, Sustainable Water Future Programme, Future Earth

Manocher Dorraj, Professor, Co-Chair Global Innovators Initiative, Texas Christian University

Amr Elnashai, Dean, College of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Bernard Engel, Head, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University

Carl J. Ganter, Co-Founder and Director, Circle of Blue

Karin Krchnak, Director, Freshwater Program, World Wildlife Fund

Rattan Lal, Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University

Upmanu Lall, Director, Columbia Water Center, Columbia University

Richard Lawford, Senior Scientific Advisor, Co-PI, SWFP cluster activity on Water Energy Food Nexus

Claudia Ringler, Deputy Division Director, Environment & Production Technology, International Food Policy Research Institute

Peter Saundry, National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE)

Kurt Schwabe, Environmental Sciences and Policy, University of California, Riverside

Shashi Shekhar, McKnight Distinguished University Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota

Jerri Sullivan, Brackish Water Group, Los Alamos National Labs

Local Organizing Committee (TAMU)

Philip Berke, Professor, Land Use and Environmental Planning, Director, Institute of Sustainable Coastal Communities, Texas A&M University

Shankar Chellam, J. Walter ‘Deak’ Port ’22 & James W. ‘Bud’ Porter ’51 Professor of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University

Ali Fares, Associate Director for Research, Texas A&M Prairie View.

Bruce McCarl, TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative Leadership Team, Senior Fellow, Regents Professor and Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University

Ari Michelsen, Professor and Resident Director, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center, El Paso

Rabi H. Mohtar, Coordinator TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative, TEES Endowed Professor, WEF Nexus Research Group, Pedostructure Characterization Lab, Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M University

Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos, TEES Distinguished Research Professor, Associate Director, Texas A&M Energy Institute, TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative Leadership Team

Kent E. Portney, Director, Institute for Science, Technology & Public Policy, and Professor, Bush School of Government and Public Service, TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative Leadership Team.

Kevin Wagner, Deputy Director of Engagement, Texas Water Resources Institute, TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative Leadership Team

David Smith, Extension Program Specialist, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, TAMU.

Mary Schweitzer, Program Manager, TAMU WEF Nexus Initiative and WEF Nexus Research Group (administrative contact: wefnexus@tamu.edu)

For more information contact:  wefnexus@tamu.edu