USU water lab director named to prestigious board
Utah State University Utah Water Research Lab Director Mac McKee has been elected as a board member on the Universities Council on Water Resources.
“We look forward to Mac McKee’s leadership in promoting UCOWR’s mission to support innovations in water resources research, education and public service,” said Tamin Younos, president of the Universities Council on Water Resources.
Ninety universities in the United States and throughout the world comprise the UCOWR organization. Member institutions engage in education, research, public service, international activities and information support for policy development related to water resources.
“My election to the UCOWR board of directors is an honor to me in several ways because one of the leaders in its establishment was Dean F. Peterson, who was then the dean of Engineering at USU and later my mentor when I was a graduate student,” said McKee. “For me, it is an honor to follow in his footsteps and be a part of a national organization he helped found. I worked for him as a graduate student more than 30 years ago, and it is humbling for me, after all this time, to continue to find his finger prints on organizations around the world associated with water policy and research.”
UCOWR’s flagship product is the “Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education.” This journal is unique in water resources in that it emphasizes an interdisciplinary perspective on water policy, said McKee. Each volume is dedicated to a thematic area of current importance in water, and all articles are authored by invitation only.
“I look forward to working with the board and the executive management of the organization to continue shaping the journal, addressing critical water problems of national and international importance,” said McKee.
McKee previously served on the UCOWR board and is a former president of the organization.
“It is gratifying that the membership has elected me again, and I will do my best to help the organization strengthen its membership and play an increasingly significant role at the national level in setting the agenda for water research and education,” said McKee.
McKee’s research spans the areas of water resources engineering, flood control, water supply, irrigation and drainage, water quality management, water resources systems analysis, basin-scale planning and management and water resources development policy.
“We look forward to Mac’s leadership in promoting UCOWR’s mission to support innovations in water resources research, education and public service,” said Tamin Younos, president of the Universities Council on Water Resources.
The UWRL works on nearly 250 water-related projects a year and has an annual budget nearing $10 million. With projects in all of Utah’s 29 counties and more than 40 international countries, the lab addresses the technical and societal aspects of water-related issues, including quality, quantity and distribution of water.
For more information on UCOWR, visit http://ucowr.siu.edu. For more information about the UWRL, visit http://www.engineering.usu.edu/uwrl/.