FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Webpage Collects Research, Innovations at AAU Universities Seeking to Ensure Sustainable Supply of Fresh Water
In a world where the supply of clean, fresh water is increasingly at risk, how can we ensure that our society will have the water we need for food production, good health, economic growth, and preservation of the natural world? A new collection of features on the Association of American Universities (AAU) website – Helping Solve the Fresh Water Puzzle – shows how AAU universities are conducting research needed to address this serious national challenge.
The water challenge is a complicated puzzle, and finding answers requires many approaches. Research universities are helping lead the way with scientific and other research in a variety of disciplines, technological breakthroughs, and education of the next generation of problem solvers.
AAU has collected dozens of examples of how university researchers and others are attacking the problem. Six rotating stories will be highlighted at a time. Examples include research at Emory University on how plants develop drought resistance, the use of a NASA satellite by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to predict drought and floods, and a sensor system created at the University of California, Davis, that tells farmers how much water their plants are using and when and how much to apply.
“AAU universities are conducting important research our nation needs to address the water challenge in the West and throughout the country and the world,” said AAU president Hunter Rawlings. “We are highlighting this research because we think it’s important for policymakers and others to understand the depth and breadth of the work AAU research universities and others are doing to help solve our nation’s most serious problems.”
# # # # #
The Association of American Universities is a nonprofit organization of 62 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Its primary missions are to maintain the productive partnership between research universities and the U.S. government and to advance university research and higher education. AAU’s 60 U.S. universities award nearly one-half of all U.S. doctoral degrees and 55 percent of those in STEM fields.