MILWAUKEE – A $2.6 million gift from Lynde Uihlein will support a new Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), university officials announced today.
The gift will fund an endowed chair and director for the planned Center, which will be part of the new graduate-level School of Freshwater Sciences.
Recruitment for the endowed chair and center director will begin this spring, concurrent with the review and approval of the new center. The director could begin work later this year, or in early 2012.
“UWM is grateful to Lynde Uihlein for the opportunity to provide such a vital resource to her alma mater, Southeastern Wisconsin and the nation,” said UWM Interim Chancellor Michael Lovell.
“This Center will provide world-class interdisciplinary solutions for problems related to the protection and restoration of our freshwater resources, and it will further position Milwaukee and the region as a national and international hub of water policy and technology innovation.”
“In creating this endowment I hope to contribute to the protection of the world’s freshwater resources,” Uihlein elaborated. “My purpose is to foster an interdependent approach that will bridge the gaps between science, technology, business and the public good. By focusing on policy, the Center will bring to bear effective strategies that protect, conserve and restore our precious freshwaters.”
The Center will bring a multidisciplinary approach, objective analysis and novel solutions to emerging issues. It will engage a broad range of individuals from water law and policy, economics, science and engineering, along with outside institutions and scholars.
The Dean of the School of Freshwater Sciences and the Center director will appoint an external advisory board with broad, expert representation.
Uihlein shares UWM’s ambitious goals and high hopes for the Center.
“I cannot think of a more important issue in our community, in our state and around the world than the sustainable use and management of water,” she said. “My hope is that the Center for Water Policy will contribute substantially to that mission, and with the assistance of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and its partners, will advance an important agenda by working together and thinking sustainably.”
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For further information, contact: Patricia Borger, 414-229-3013, pborger@uwm.edu; or Melissa K. Scanlan, on behalf of Lynde Uihlein, 414-688-4171, melissa.k.scanlan@gmail.com.
