Interdisciplinary Programs
Water Science and Policy
A Message from the Founding Director
Water is a valuable resource that is critical for the health, vitality, and long-term sustainability of all natural ecosystems. For humans, water plays an essential role in food and energy production, transportation, and recreation.
Worldwide, however, water resources are at a risk. Unsustainable population growth, land-use changes, pollution, and global climate change all threaten the distribution, quantity, and quality of the water on which all life depends.
Protecting and preserving our water resources requires that we take a “big picture” approach that addresses where water comes from, where it goes, how it travels, how it is used by living things, what’s in it, and how to remediate problems and develop policies to protect water.
The interdisciplinary program in Water Science & Policy educates students to address the complex challenges that we face today; to develop solutions that are socially acceptable, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable; and to be true stewards of our environment.
We invite you to join us in our endeavors to ensure that all of Earth’s inhabitants, now and into the future, have adequate supplies of clean, healthy water.
Dr. Shreeram Inamdar
Professor of Watershed Hydrology and Biogeochemistry
By choosing to study Water Science & Policy at the University of Delaware, you will be embarking on an exciting intellectual journey that will challenge you to synthesize knowledge from a number of different fields. No matter what aspect of water you choose as your research focus, you’ll be encouraged to look at how it intertwines with other natural and human aspects of water quality and quantity.
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Uncovering Earth’s respiration
April 13, 2025 | Written by Nya WynnElizabeth Smith, a former NSF Graduate Research Fellow and UD Plant and Soil Sciences Ph.D. alumna, investigated soil respiration using machine learning to better understand its role in the global carbon cycle. Analyzing two decades of data from multiple datasets, her research revealed unexpected patterns in national and global soil respiration trends. Now a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech, Smith is expanding her computational expertise to study enhanced rock weathering, a technique for carbon capture in agriculture. Passionate about science communication, she also works to make environmental research more accessible, bridging the gap between scientific discovery and public understanding. -
Farm-to-glass brewery
April 02, 2025 | Written by Molly SchaferSince the 1920s, the Hopkins Family has farmed the same plot of land in Havre De Grace, Maryland. David grows the barley, and his son Aaron Hopkins, a UD Class of 2012 UD food and agribusiness marketing and management alumnus, uses it to create a unique range of craft beers. The father and son UD alumni duo are joined in their endeavors by David’s siblings, Alice Hopkins Puckett and Daniel Hopkins, who are co-owners of the farm and managing partners of Hopkins Farm Brewery. -
Meet our new faculty: Christian Dewey
March 25, 2025 | Story by Katie Peikes | Photos by Katie Peikes and courtesy of Christian DeweyNew UD Department of Plant and Soil Sciences faculty member Christian Dewey studies trace elements in the soil, including contaminants such as lead and uranium, and nutrients such as nitrogen. Dewey also studies carbon in soils and how soils work to control the rate flux of various elements into water bodies and ecosystems.
Connect
234 Hullihen Hall, Newark, DE 19716 USA grad@udel.edu General: (302) 831-6824 Fax: (302) 831-8745