May 7, 2013
Two eminent water resources experts are bringing their broad experience and leadership to the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.
Chittaranjan Ray will join the DWFI in August as director of the Nebraska Water Center, and Christopher M. U. Neale will join the DWFI in October as director of research.
The two will be members of founding executive director Roberto Lenton's leadership team for the institute.
Neale is professor in the Irrigation Engineering Division of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Utah State University and has been a leader in remote sensing and management of agricultural water resources since joining the faculty there in 1988.
Neale holds a doctorate in agricultural engineering from Colorado State University. He has extensive experience working in water research and management projects in the western U.S. and in South America, Africa and the Caribbean.
He is president-elect of the International Commission on Remote Sensing of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences and will assume the presidency in July 2014.
Ray is professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is currently the interim director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Hawaii, which like the Nebraska Water Center is part of a network of more than 54 water resources research institutes at land-grant universities nationwide.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Hawaii in 1997, Ray held positions in industry and at the Illinois State Water Survey.
He has a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Illinois, and he has extensive experience in many facets of managing both water quantity and water quality issues.
"I am delighted by the appointment of Drs. Neale and Ray," said Roberto Lenton, executive director of the Water for Food Institute. "They will play critically important roles in advancing the work of the Water for Food Institute in Nebraska and other parts of the world facing critical water for food challenges."
The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska is a research, education and policy analysis institute committed to helping the world efficiently use its limited freshwater resources, with particular focus on ensuring the food supply for current and future generations.
