I am very happy to be one of a small group of Tufts faculty to have been awarded a NSF IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) grant to support a new Ph.D. program in "Water Diplomacy." The idea behind the grant is to provide financial incentives ($30,000/year stipend and full tuition waiver) to doctoral students entering existing disciplinary-based Ph.D. programs to expand their research into other disciplines involving water and water conflicts.
It seems inevitable that water will soon become the most pressing environmental challenge all around the world. Although no one has yet fought a large scale war over water, serious conflicts have arisen. The expectation is that the intensity of these conflicts is likely to get worse, and few people are prepared for such a possibility. So this program will allow students of water science or water engineering to study issues of water policy, diplomacy, and conflict resolution. It will allow students of diplomacy to study water science and engineering. The expectation is that we will train a small generation of new scholars and professionals who understand water issues from a variety of different scientific, engineering, and social science perspectives. If you think you might be interested in this program, or know somehow who might be, check the Tufts Water Diplomacy web site for details.