Water Resources Expert Appointed to U of S Canada Research Chair

Posted March 17, 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 17, 2003 2003-03-09-OTHER

Water Resources Expert Appointed to U of S Canada Research Chair

Today the University of Saskatchewan was awarded $1.4 million over seven
years to create a new Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate
Change, as well as $150,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
for related laboratory equipment.

John Pomeroy, recruited from the University of Wales, UK, will join the U of
S geography department August 1. He will study how the atmosphere affects
changing water and snow resources, research critical to managing the
environment and sustaining society in Western and Northern Canada.

"We're delighted to have a scientist of Prof. Pomeroy's calibre take up this
Canada Research Chair which will help U of S and its partners build on their
international prominence in hydrology and make major advances in the study
of water quality, climate change and water resource management in the most
water-deprived region of Canada - the Prairies," said U of S President Peter
MacKinnon.

The announcement was made in Montreal by Industry Minister Allan Rock as
part of a $95.3-million investment to create 106 new Canada Research Chairs
at 36 universities, as well as $12.1 million in CFI infrastructure support.


To date, the U of S has received a total of $11.5 million to support 12
Chairs, as well as $1.2 million in infrastructure funding from the CFI.

Pomeroy's Chair funding will help train graduate students, postdoctoral
fellows, technicians and computer programmers in his lab. The CFI money will
help fund a $375,000 Saskatchewan Watershed Research Facility to test and
develop a model for predicting water supply and assessing drought, flood and
climate impacts.

Pomeroy will also use the U of S-owned Canadian Light Source synchrotron
(www.cls.usask.ca) to investigate the chemical structure of snow and water.


He says rural water shortages on the Prairies have contributed to dramatic
rural population declines in the last 50 years, and that poor water quality
makes many supplies unusable.

"Estimates of current and future changes to the Prairie climate tell us that
water resources will have to be better managed to provide enough supply and
sufficient quality for our needs," he said.

"To predict and manage water resources more effectively, we must gain a
better understanding of how climate and land management influence water
resources and how to reduce the uncertainty of predicting water supply and
flooding in the Prairies."

He will collaborate in this research with federal and provincial partners,
as well as international agencies and other U of S researchers.

A former U of S graduate, Pomeroy said it is a "great honor to return to the
institution where so many discoveries have been made."

"Saskatoon developed as the founding centre of Canadian hydrology and
aquatic science because of the ground-breaking research conducted at the U
of S and later carried on in the National Water Research Institute at
Innovation Place," he said.

He added, "The U of S has recently made great strides in reaffirming its
eminence as both a research and teaching institution. There is a clear
dynamism around campus and the success in gaining research grants is showing
up in new facilities, new people and a cutting-edge education for the
students."

Co-author of a book and author of more than 150 publications, Pomeroy has
won scientific research awards from NATO, the Japan Science and Technology
Agency, and Environment Canada. He has led large international studies and
has convened several international conferences on water, snow and climate in
Canada, Europe and Japan. He has UK and U.S. government research funding
totalling $2 million CDN.

Pomeroy is the only Canadian on the Scientific Steering Committee of the
International Association of Hydrological Sciences' recently launched
"International Decade for Prediction of Ungauged Basins", a 2003-2013
initiative to improve estimates of water resource supply, variability and
characteristics.

Pomeroy was trained in geography (B.Sc), agricultural engineering (Ph.D) at
the U of S during the 1970's and 80's. Later he worked as a research
scientist in England, Wyoming and Saskatoon (at the federal water research
institute on campus). At the University of Wales, he established the UK's
first water science degree.

The new Chair is among 31 allotted to the U of S under the $900-million
Chairs Program. For profiles of U of S Chairholders, visit:
www.chairs.gc.ca/english/profile/index.cfm.

Nominations submitted by universities to the Chairs Program are reviewed by
a team of academic peers who choose only the most outstanding. U of S
research priority areas for the Chairs are biotechnology, environmental
sciences, health sciences, identity and diversity, materials science, and
technology and change.

The Chairs Program was created to enhance universities as centers of
world-class research excellence by attracting and retaining excellent
researchers in Canadian universities. By 2005, Canadian universities will
have 2,000 new Canada Research Chairs (www.chairs.gc.ca).

"The Canada Research Chairs Program is one we can be proud of," said
Minister Rock. "It will serve three generations of scholars and scientists
-- the senior researchers, the younger ones, and the graduate students who
will benefit greatly by being able to work with world-class researchers in a
high-profile environment."

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For more information, contact:

Kathryn Warden
University of Saskatchewan
Research Communications Officer
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research

Dr. John Pomeroy
Coordinator, Water Science
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Tel. 01970-622781, outside UK 44-1970-622781
Fax 01970-622659, outside UK 44-1970-622659
John.Pomeroy@aber.ac.uk
http://www.aber.ac.uk/glaciology/jwp/jwphome.html