Abstract Call for Harmful Algal Bloom Virtual Symposium

by Algal Bloom Action TeamEvents

The Algal Bloom Action Team, a collaboration of water professionals, researchers, and educators from 12 states in the North Central Region of the United States, invites you to submit an abstract to the Fifth Annual Harmful Algal Bloom Virtual Symposium. The symposium will feature emergent harmful algal bloom (HAB) research and provide opportunities to discuss community outreach efforts.

To learn more about this opportunity, you can read more on our website.

  • Deadline: October 22, 2024, 11:59 pm Central Time
  • Submit: Google Form

Fifth Annual Harmful Algal Bloom Virtual Symposium Call for Abstracts

by Announcements

January 9–10, 2025

Deadline: October 22, 2024, 11:59 pm Central Time

The Algal Bloom Action Team, a collaboration of water professionals, researchers, and educators from 12 states in the North Central Region of the United States, invites you to submit an abstract to the Fifth Annual Harmful Algal Bloom Virtual Symposium. The symposium will feature emergent harmful algal bloom (HAB) research and provide opportunities to discuss community outreach efforts.

The Algal Bloom Action Team includes the national network of Water Resources Research Institutes (WRRI), the North Central Region Water Network, and university Extensions within each state in the North Central Region. The Algal Bloom Action Team was the recipient of the Outstanding Regional Collaboration Achievement Award from the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals for its first Annual Harmful Algal Blooms Symposium in 2021. The 2024 Harmful Algal Bloom Symposium featured 6 presentations on a variety of HAB-related topics and brought together over 600 water professionals from across the United States.

For more information on the Algal Bloom Action Team, see our website:
https://northcentralwater.org/habs/

Presentation Abstract Information

The Symposium Planning Committee is specifically interested in science-based presentation abstracts that address harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the North Central Region of the United States, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

To be considered for acceptance, presentation abstracts must address at least one of the following topic
areas related to HABs:

  • Monitoring, Forecasting, and Detection
  • Prevention and Treatment
  • Human Dimensions*
  • Climate Change Impacts

*Particularly interested in citizen scientist opportunities or monitoring/communication methods

Upon acceptance, presentations should be limited to 30 minutes.
Presentations should be research or outreach focused. Product promotion is discouraged.

Review Criteria

Presentations will be reviewed based on one or more of the following criteria:

  • Is the abstract a science- or data-driven approach to understanding HABs?
  • Does the abstract address HABs topics in the North Central Region? (See states listed above.)
  • Does this topic have interest or applicability to Extension and other HABs-related professionals?

Abstract Submission

Proposals should be submitted using this Google form. No submissions will be accepted via email to
conference organizers. Incomplete submissions or submissions sent directly to planning committee
members will not be considered.

For questions regarding the program or submitting an abstract, please contact:
Amy Weckle, aweckle@illinois.edu.

104B Research Grants Program Now Open!​

by Funding Opportunities

The Illinois Water Resources Center requests proposals to fund exploratory research or educational projects that enhance water sciences research and higher education throughout Illinois. We are particularly interested in supporting projects that will help grow the body of research in Illinois, including proof-of-concept projects that may help researchers attract larger grants. To learn more about this opportunity, you can read about it on our website or read the call for proposals on Box.

  • Notification of Intent due 10/1/2024 5 pm CST
  • Full Proposal due 11/1/2024 5 pm CST
Logos for Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Great Lakes Higher Education Consortium, and Council of the Great Lakes Region.

Great Lakes Freshwater Symposium: Economic and Health Impacts of Algal Blooms, 9/10/24

by Announcements

Blue-green algae can have harmful effects on humans and pets. Unfortunately, there’s no quick way to determine if an algal bloom is dangerous. Laboratory testing may take several days, and algal blooms can appear and vanish within hours, making beach closures difficult to manage. Join us for a webinar that highlights the challenges of monitoring and responding to blue-green algae blooms and their economic and public health impacts. The panel includes: 

  • Gina LaLiberte, Statewide Harmful Algal Bloom Coordinator and Inland Beach Monitoring Coordinator, WDNR
  • Todd Miller, Associate Professor, UW-Milwaukee’s Zilber College of Public Health
  • Amy Weckle, Assistant Director, Illinois Water Resources Center
  • When: Septemeber 10, 2024, 12 PM to 1 PM Central Time
  • Register here

This event is part of a quarterly water symposium series sponsored by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Great Lakes Higher Education Consortium and Council of the Great Lakes Region. These events seek to encourage and advance collaborations, share science across borders, encourage students in research and career opportunities and present research that is solving real-world problems.

Logos for Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Great Lakes Higher Education Consortium, and Council of the Great Lakes Region.

Illinois State Water Survey Looking for Director and Principal Research Scientist, Applications Due 9/6/24

by Job Opportunities

The Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS), whose research and service programs provide citizens, industries, and government agencies at all levels with timely, science-based information and analyses necessary to manage our water resources wisely for economic development and a sustainable environment, is seeking a Director who will provide strategic director and overall administration for the Survey while also serving in a Principal Research Scientist to administer research activities of the Survey by conceiving, recommending, implementing, directing, and participating in scientific research focused on the selected candidates area of study while contributing to the overall scientific mission of the Prairie Research Institute (PRI).

Click here to learn more about this job position.

  • Applications close: 6 PM Central Time, September 6, 2024
  • Location: Champaign, IL (in person)
  • Group: Illinois State Water Survey
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Interview With Corrie Maxwell

by WATN Interview
  • What is the name of the organization you work for and your role there?
    • I’m working as the Nutrient Reduction Strategy Coordinator at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). MPCA and other Minnesota (and federal and local) partners are conducting a 10-year update on Minnesota’s NRS, and I’m managing that project. So contract and grant management, calendars, coordinating everyone, and writing and editing the revisions.
  • How did your experience at IWRC contribute to your career path?
    • I was on the original Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy facilitation team with IWRC, and that experience was almost directly responsible for me being hired for my current position. Aside from nutrient management, I also managed the small grants program and peer review at IWRC, and that work inspired a lasting interest in research administration and project management. I spent three and a half years with the Minnesota Legislature working on grant and research administration for projects for the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, and I never would have applied for that position in the first place if IWRC hadn’t shown me how much I enjoy that kind of work.
  • In what ways did your work/experiences at IWRC contribute to your professional development?
    • Working with and being mentored by former IWRC assistant director Lisa Merrifield has been one of the most important parts of my professional development. Lisa always demonstrated both extreme competence and kindness, and she was (and is) such a role model to me for how to find a way to be really, really good at your job while balancing that with a healthy personal life.
  • Are there any valuable perspectives that you gained in the field?
    • One of the first projects I completed at IWRC was to topically categorize the publication archive, which stretched back to the founding of the water centers in the 1960s. I had to skim a lot of papers to figure out what they were about because the majority didn’t contain keywords or abstracts. Topics ranged from summaries of early European missionaries’ descriptions of water resources in Illinois to pre-Clean Water Act wastewater treatment technology. It was truly shocking to understand how far the technology, science, and societal expectations about water have come in the last 60 years, and it also gave me a historic perspective about my work. When I get discouraged about persistent water quality problems or pollution, I can think back to those old papers and realize that while the progress has been slow, it has also been enormous in moving toward clean, safe water for everyone. There is still so much work to do to restore and protect water, but being able to look back and see the change in attitudes from the view that tossing stockyard waste into Bubbly Creek in Chicago was a reasonable practice and that it was ok for a stream to catch on fire, to now an expectation that the CAWS should be fishable and swimmable gives me a lot of hope.
  • How has your time at IWRC influenced your career and personal growth?
    • I was pretty freshly out of grad school and unsure of myself when I started at IWRC, yet I was given a lot of leeway to explore my own ideas. For example, I thought it would be great to establish an IWRC social media presence, but then reality hit and I discovered I didn’t know what I was doing. Turns out a personal Facebook account doesn’t magically create professional social media skills. I started researching branding and developing a platform, but managing the accounts was still out of my comfort zone. I had to learn to work through that discomfort. Ultimately, experiences like that at IWRC have helped me build confidence in my ability to solve problems and to take on projects that push me.
  • What are your future career aspirations, and how do you see your experience at IWRC playing a role in those aspirations?
    • I feel like my current position has been my career aspiration for a long time, so I hope that I continue to build my expertise in large-scale water resource programs and strategies. Ultimately, like most conservation/natural resources professionals, I would love to work myself out of a job. It’d be wonderful to see all water quality goals achieved in my lifetime so that when I’m retiring, something like a nutrient reduction strategy will seem as archaic to a new IWRC staffer as the research on early wastewater treatment technology seemed to me in 2012.
  • What are some of your notable work/projects at IWRC?
    • I’m really proud of the work IWRC did on the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy. I still see my role in that as a major life accomplishment. My work at IWRC varied so much that my perspective on what was notable may be a little skewed. For example, there was a stretch when I was the only IWRC staff member, and getting the RFP out and the annual report submitted that year remain notable projects in my mind.