DWFI hosted its annual Water for Food Research Forum on April 17, which showcases research from DWFI supported students and their Faculty Fellow mentors. With projects ranging in applications for high productivity agriculture, smallholder farming, and water quality, the students are addressing questions around how we can produce more food for a growing population with less pressure on our water resources.
In addition to presentations and posters describing the students research, the event also included a panel In a panel showing potential careers future graduates could have outside of an academic setting and the pathways to get there. The panel featured Ryan Chapman, assistant manager at the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District; Timothy Mundorf, nutrient management lead at Central Valley Ag Coop, and Renata Rimšaitė, DWFI senior program manager; and was moderated by Nick Brozović, DWFI director of policy.
Immediately following the event, DWFI hosted a networking event leading into the Nebraska Water Center's Spring Seminar Series held at Hardin Hall on East Campus.
Since it was initiated in 2014, the DWFI’s student support program has made more than 96 awards to DWFI Faculty Fellows supporting postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students on all four University of Nebraska campuses and invested $3.6 million, of which $3 million has been matched one-to-one by faculty. The awards provide stipends to students working on projects that contribute to the institute’s mission to have a lasting impact on achieving more food security with less pressure on scarce water resources.