As the new Director of the Kentucky Water Research Institute, I take this opportunity to tell you a little about my background. First of all, it is great to be in Kentucky. My wife and I thoroughly enjoy Lexington, and the community has welcomed us very warmly. We look forward to making many new friends here. My wife and I had four children. They are grown and either in school or working, except for our daughter, whom we lost due to a brain tumor when she was 24.

I am a soil chemist by degree. I taught beginning Soils at the University of Florida and conducted research on soil organic matter and water quality. I lived in the Everglades for several years and am very familiar with South Florida. I was department chair for several years at the University of Missouri, then enjoyed one year in Washington D.C. working on water quality grants for the USDA. For the last nine years, I was the Director of the Water Center at the University of Nebraska.

Because Kentucky had a reputation of having a good sound program in the water sciences, the opportunity to lead the program was too good to miss. In my first few months in the position, I have learned much about the commonwealth’s water resources but still have a long way to go. While groundwater was the major area of interest in Nebraska, surface water concerns in Kentucky are of great importance. The drought has certainly brought surface water concerns to be of primary interest.

If one thinks about it, next to its people, water is Kentucky’s most important resource. Significant opportunities exist for water research and education in Kentucky, and I hope to help guide future efforts. I have a number of ideas for program enhancement and will work on those with your assistance over the next few years. University faculty in the water resources area are of very high quality, and I plan to work very closely with them and provide as much support to them as possible.

The Water Institute is here to serve you. Please feel free to contact us at any time. If we can not answer your questions, we will find someone who can. We plan on putting a lot of effort into our Web site and keeping it up to date for your use.

Again, it is nice to part of a progressive program with aggressive leadership.

Copyright ©1999 Kentucky Water Research Institute,
University of Kentucky