Illinois Water Resources Center (IWRC) Director and Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Clinical Professor Yu-Feng Lin has been named President-elect of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR). In this role, he will serve the nation’s 54 water resource institutes and their respective directors to work with Congress and other federal agencies on the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA).
His appointment to this position makes Illinois a major voice in the conversation on future development of water research and gives the Illinois Water Resources Center (IWRC) an opportunity to coordinate collaborative water resources efforts on a national scale.
IWRC was established by the Graduate College and hosted by CEE starting in 1963, with CEE professor Benjamin Ewing serving as its first director. Soon after passage of the WRRA in 1964, the IWRC was designated by Governor Otto Kerner Jr. as the WRRA Institute of Illinois.
In addition to his roles with the IWRC and CEE, Lin serves as principal research hydrogeologist at the Prairie Research Institute and is a research professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also the Executive Editor for Groundwater, a publication of the National Ground Water Association.
Lin’s appointment as President-elect will officially begin May 1, 2024.