Our Technical Toolkit



Wednesday, 10. October 2007 | 13:30 Uhr

Speaker

Janet Hering

Organisation

EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland

Reporting

Janet Hering, EAWAG Dübendorf gives her presentation the title ‘Our technical toolkit’, but states right from the beginning: “First, define the problem, then, find the right tool!” She states that hydrologic cycles are more powerful than mankind. The force of water overcomes manmade structures. But water is also useful for the population: leisure time, work, habitat, cleaning etc. EAWAG is a research institution and offers instruments for practical uses. An increase of white fish stocks in the Lake Brienz at the turn of the millennium might be explained by improved water quality: There are less fish in a lake under natural conditions. Flood protection, urban water systems and ground water problems (contamination) in Southeast Asia are further practical fields of application. The speaker closes with the following question for the conference participants: What tools do we need to improve our knowledge and address substantial problems and shortages? Questions from the audience: It is often difficult and does not make sense to re-establish the natural balance that existed before negative human interventions. It is our responsibility to understand that our activities are or become part of the natural system. What is clean water? This question requires a situationally determined answer.

Janet Hering (CV in German)

Janet Hering ist Direktorin der EAWAG (Das Wasserforschungs-Institut der ETH) in Dübendorf.

Geboren 1958 studierte sie an der Cornell und an der Harvard Universität (MA). 1988 schloss sie am Massachusetts Institute of Technology mit dem Doktorat (ph.D) in Oceanographie ab.

Von 1988 – 1991 arbeitete sie als Forschungsassistentin in der Chemieabteilung der EAWAG. Von 1991 – 1995 durchlief sie eine akademische Karriere bis zum ausserordentlichen Professorin an California University in Los Angeles im Bereich der Umweltwissenschaften. Bis 2006 war sie in den Bereichen Material- und Umweltwissenschaften tätig und war seit 2002 Professorin der Abteilung Umweltwissenschaften & Technik des California Institute of Technology.

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