University of Maryland Professor Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, Executive Director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS), is a principal investigator of a newly funded grant sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant, which fosters research on food, energy and water (F-E-W) as a linked system or “nexus,” provides $1.2 million dollars in support of 17 F-E-W workshops, which will involve 30-80 participants each.
The workshops are intended to facilitate partnerships among researchers in the natural sciences, physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and computing and engineering. Workshop goals include finding innovative approaches to understand food-energy-water systems and to study technologies that can create resource efficiencies, reduce waste and enhance reuse.
The Miralles-Wilhelm’s led effort will take a broad systems perspective, linking application of tools and areas of disciplinary expertise to optimization of engineered F-E-W systems. The Co-principal investigator of the award is Dr. Eric D. Wachsman, Director of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC).
The workshop itself, to be held at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., October 27 & 28, 2015, will focus on F-E-W development, sustainability, and security. The event will be hosted by the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC).
According to Miralles-Wilhelm, the workshop will feature more than 30 speakers coming from the US and abroad, as well as an anticipated 150 registered participants.
