GWSC Director Mike Gremillion sends a monthly electronic newsletter with highlights and updates from our team and our work. If you’d like to sign up to receive the monthly email, please fill out the form on this page. You can also read archived newsletters below.
GWSC Newsletter Archive
March 2024
I’m in Washington, DC, this week to help share more about how our work supports and improves our national water security capabilities. I was pleased to learn that Rebecca Zimmerman, the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, referenced GWSC in her recent testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
As I visit various offices in the nation’s capital, I can’t help but take a moment to be grateful for the tremendous partnerships GWSC has been able to develop in the past couple of years.
I won’t start naming specific people or organizations for fear of leaving someone out, but if you have contacted us, supported us, or worked with us, please know that you have my sincerest thanks. We couldn’t do this work without you.
Best,
Mike Gremillion
Director, GWSC
Our Recent Work
El Niño Impacts: Equator Divides Extreme Wet and Dry Conditions
GWSC Deep Dive Webinar Series: Water Wars
At our March 7 webinar, Marcus King (Georgetown University), Melissa McCracken (Tufts University), and Penny Beames (GWSC) discussed the ins and outs of Water Wars. You can watch the recording here.
On the GWSC Blog
Interpretable Machine Learning in Climate and Environmental Sciences
Why I Read Climate Fiction, and You Should Too
Making the Jump: From Academia to Research for Policy
Innovative tools in development to aid in geospatial data wrangling
Other GWSC News
Environmental Data Scientist Kaitlin Kimmel-Hass wrote a blog post for SpringerNature Research Communities about statistical power and replicability in ecology, in conjunction with her recent co-authored paper
February 2024
As I ponder the state of water security in this first quarter of 2024, I can’t help but marvel at how far we’ve come – while keeping an eye on how far we have to go.
I attended the first “Integrating Climate Change into Professional Military Education” conference last month in Stockholm and had the opportunity to engage with brilliant leaders from around the world around issues at the intersection of water, food, energy, and health. For the first time, water was included in the final resolution at last year’s COP27 and continued to play a major role this year. Even both major parties of the US government seem to agree on the importance of water to our national security strategy.
At the same time, there’s progress to be made, and that’s where the Global Water Security Center comes in. We are bridging the gap between the people who are “doing” the science and those who are making decisions about national security. We are supporting the development of new, improved data sets and algorithms and providing the essential contextual translation of that information to make it useful for decision makers.
You can read more of my thoughts on the state of water security in my recent blog post, and if you’re interested in working with us, you can now submit an RFI on our website.
Best,
Mike Gremillion
Director, GWSC
GWSC Deep Dive Webinar Series: Water Wars
Thursday, March 7, 1 p.m. CST
Marcus King (Georgetown University), Melissa McCracken (Tufts University), and Penny Beames (GWSC) will discuss the ins and outs of Water Wars. GWSC Deputy Director Kate Brauman will moderate. Register here.
On the GWSC Blog
Talking Water at COP with Dr. Mónica Altamirano de Jong
Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Weather Forecasting?
Water Technical Summit Offers Interesting Tidbits on the State of Rural Water
Other GWSC News
The GWSC team had its first all-hands meeting in Tuscaloosa
Our newsletter archive (including our first newsletter from January 2024) is online
January 2024
Happy New Year!
The Global Water Security Center finished 2023 strong, and we’re looking forward to a great 2024. You can read more about our work last year in our 2023 annual report. Some highlights include the creation of 21 Quicklooks and country insight briefs; four new hires, more than doubling our staff size; and $6.2 million in federal funding for 2022-23. Our new staffers included three dedicated data scientists.
We anticipate bringing in three additional staff members in the first quarter of 2024, allowing us to increase our capabilities even further. To keep our partners, stakeholders, and other interested parties informed, I will send out monthly emails like this to share the latest news from GWSC.
As always, I welcome your insight and feedback. Wishing you and yours a great 2024!
Mike Gremillion
Director, GWSC
From the GWSC Blog
GWSC Deputy Director Kate Brauman provides updates from the annual AGU meeting
GWSC, Dept. of State partner to provide opportunities
The Myth of Modern Water: Household Water Insecurity in High-Income Countries
Save the Dates
GWSC will host quarterly informational webinars during 2024. These webinars will be at 1 p.m. Central time on March 7, June 6, Sept. 12, and Dec. 12. You can watch a recording of our most recent webinar, “Wrangling Insight from Chaos: How GWSC is Changing the Water Security Landscape,” here.