News

From March 24 to 26, Philippe was a guest at the Grand Water Research Institute GWRI) of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel (http://gwri.technion.ac.il). GWRI is Israel’s leading institute of water research. Philippe’s visit centered on exploring potential areas of collaboration between GWRI and the Water Institute of the University of Waterloo. In addition to discussions with GWRI faculty, Philippe gave a seminar and visited some of the research facilities. 

Philippe Van Cappellen was a member of the committee reviewing the Environmental and Biological Systems Science and the Climate and Carbon Sciences programs within the Earth Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. The review took place on March 18 and 19. 

A new publication, Modelling phosphorus loading and algal blooms in a nordic, by Raoul-Marie Couture and co-authors is in press. The study presents a network of process-based mass-balance models for phosphorus dynamics in catchments and lakes provides a new approach to simulate the effect of land-use and climate change on water quality. The results suggest that good land use practices can offset the detrimental effects of climate change on water quality.

Philippe Van Cappellen and PhD student Severin Stojanovic visited the China Three Gorges University (CTGU) in Yichang, Hubei Province to initiate a collaborative research project on developing a predictive model for algal blooms in tributaries of the Three Gorges Reservoir. The collaboration involves researchers from the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo (UW) and from the Environmental Hydraulics group at CTGU. Severin remained in Yichang for the entire week of February 17, while Philippe left for Beijing on February 19.

World Wetlands Day symposium at University of Waterloo featured on Radio Canada International (RCI). To read the article and listen to the interview of Philippe Van Cappellen, go to

http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2014/02/04/20569understanding-the-importance-of-wetlands/

Our World Wetlands Day Symposium is happening today in DC 1301 and 1302. The talks can also be streamed live online!

Congratulations to Helen Powley on being awarded a Water Institute 2013-14 Scholarship. Helen's scholarship is sponsored by Golder Associates. This year 32 applications were submitted and 5 scholarships awarded. Well done Helen! 

Philippe Van Cappellen attended the International Workshop on Water Quality Protection and Management of the Three Gorges Reservoir, held on December 17-18, 2013 in Chongqing, China. The workshop brought together specialists from China and Canada working on water quality issues in natural and managed aquatic ecosystems. As part of the workshop he presented an invited talk entitled “Three Gorges Reservoir: Collaborative Research Opportunities”. 

Fereidoun Rezanezhad has been invited and has accepted to be an Associate Editor of Journal of Hydrology. Congratulations!