The NMSU Water Initiative is a project to enhance NMSU’s efforts concerning water. The goal is to better position NMSU’s resources in order to build alliances with the community, communicate with stakeholders more effectively, and keep agriculture and industry successful in New Mexico. The NMSU Water Initiative provides connections to resources for enhancing research applications, hosts networking events that foster collaboration, and hosts forums that help define the research needs of the local community.
As a part of the NMSU Research and Creativity Week, which took place November 11th through the 15th, the NMSU Water Initiative and NM Water Resources Research Institute hosted an event to highlight NMSU graduate student water research. The purpose of the event was to learn about graduate students’ water-related research at NMSU, while also creating opportunities for NMSU faculty and graduate students to collaborate on water-related research and grant proposals.
There were 13 students who presented their graduate research from six departments across three colleges. Student presentations showcased graduate research being conducted in the departments of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Water Science and Management, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Agricultural Economics and Business, and Sociology.
Several members of campus leadership attended the event. The Deans of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Science, Engineering, and the Associate Dean for Research of Arts and Sciences all spoke about the importance of water research and how collaborating across campus has benefited the projects that their colleges are working on. The NMSU Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, Luis Cifuentes, gave the closing remarks and spoke about how NMSU is a regional leader in water research. Dr. Cifuentes also spoke about the increasing demand for water research and how NMSU is poised to solve the water research challenges of the future.
NMSU Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) and Research Administration Services (RAS) each gave a brief presentation about funding opportunities dealing with water. The NMSU Water Initiative works in close collaboration with CFR and RAS, and is making great strides in connecting water researchers with resources, collaborators, and the community.
Poster abstracts submitted by NMSU students can be viewed here.
