H₂OSU is available at http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
May 2006

Program Update

OSU's Water Resources Graduate Program off to a great start - "In its first year the WRGP graduated five students and enrolled another 19," reports Mary Santelmann, Director of the WRGP. She also fielded inquiries from over a 100 prospective students and expects that around 20 new students will enroll in the program for next fall. Enrollment is split between all three majors -- for 2006-2007, she expects there will be about 15 students each in Water Resources Engineering and Water Resources Science majors, and about 10 students in the Water Resources Policy and Management major. Currently, students can choose a program advisor from among seventy participating faculty members. For more information about the WRGP visit: http://oregonstate.edu/gradwater/ or contact Mary Santelmann.

In the News

OSU lists ideas on groundwater nitrate (Corvallis Gazette-Times, 4/26/06) - "In 2004, high concentrations of nitrate in groundwater in the southern Willamette Valley prompted the state Department of Environmental Quality to declare a “groundwater management area” between Eugene and Albany. A new report by the Oregon State University Extension Well Water Program recommends actions that could reduce nitrate from residential water sources in the area." Read more...

Water supply is on the rocks, and that's OK - The Cascades store vast reserves in an underground basin (Salem Statesman Journal, 4/4/06) - "The snow that covers Oregon's highest mountains is only the most visible part of the storage system that supplies water to streams and rivers flowing from the Cascades." This article features research and quotes by Gordon Grant, USFS Research Hydrologist, and Courtesy professor of OSU Departments of Geosciences, Forest Engineering & Forest Science. Read more...

Upcoming Events

Hydrology Seminar Series continues (all held in ALS 4000 at 4 pm)...for the complete schedule see: http://water.oregonstate.edu/news/SpringHydro2006.pdf.

Wednesday, May 3. Characterizing Groundwater Systems Using Hydrogeophysics. Eileen Poeter, Colorado School of Mines. Eileen is this year’s Darcy Lecturer and she will be available to meet on May 3 with students from 1:15-2 pm and for one-on-one (30 min) appointments from 2-3:30 pm. Contact Roy Haggerty (haggertr@science.oregonstate.edu) if you would like to meet with her.

Wednesday, May 10. Reactive transport of metals and organic material in streams and rivers. Diane McKnight, University of Colorado.

Wednesday, May 17. New Approaches in Soil Physics Using Ground Penetrating Radar. Susan Hubbard, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Wednesday, May 24. Remediating Tritium Contaminated Groundwater with Trees: A Case Study from the Savannah River Site . Susan Riha, Cornell University.

Get Involved

Propose a Session for the Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco - The Fall Meeting will be Dec 11-15, 2006. Session proposals are due June 8, 2006. See proposal instructions at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/?content=program#sessionProposals.

Funding Opportunities

NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences - Research Coordination Networks in Biological Sciences - "The goal of this program is to encourage and foster interactions among scientists to create new research directions or advance a field. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies are especially encouraged. The proposed networking activities should have a theme as a focus of its collaboration. The focus could be on a broad research question, a specific group of organisms, or particular technologies or approaches." An award from this program recently funded research collaboration on the Elwha River dam removals. Deadline: June 26, 2006. FMI: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=11691

NSF Geoscience - Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics - "Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics supports innovative research into processes that shape and modify natural landscapes over a variety of length and time scales. The program encourages research that investigates the coupling and feedback between such processes and their relative roles, especially in the contexts of variation in climate and and changes in human impact." Deadline: July 16, 2006. FMI: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13412&org=GEO&from=fund

A list of water-related external funding opportunities is available on the IWW website...opportunities are arranged by deadline and include short program descriptions and links to RFPs. see: http://water.oregonstate.edu/funding/externalfunding.htm

Featured Student

David Rupp, a recent PhD graduate in Water Resources Engineering, was awarded an Honorable Mention in the University Council on Water Resources 2006 dissertation contest. David's research focused on the theory and practice of predicting stream flows from small catchments. John Selker was David's thesis advisor and he nominated him for the UCOWR award. David's work was motivated by data from a watershed that an OSU/Chilean team had instrumented in the coastal mountain range of central Chile. The analysis of the field data involved developing new anayltical solutions to the underlying differential equations, numerical simulation, and plenty of field work. David is now working as a research scientist for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Christchurch, New Zealand.