Archived News

Fall 2022

December 12-14, 2022 - The Basu Lab attends AGU 2022!
December 6, 2022 - Simon Lin successfully defended his MASc thesis titled 'Hydrologic Change Detection Modelling Methods for Disturbed Forested Watersheds.' Congratulations Simon!
November 23, 2022 - Excited to announce the official launch of "SOLUTIONSCAPES - designing climate and water smart agricultural solutions in complex working landscapes" project, led by Principal Investigator Nandita Basu, and funded through the Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF).
October 22, 2022 - Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Fellow and Data Scientist to work in Big Data, Environmental Challenges and Nature-based Solutions at the Food-Water-Energy Nexus.
October 5, 2022 - Nandita was an invited speaker at McMaster University's 13th Annual Woo Water Lecture presenting 'Back to the Future: Managing Nutrient Legacies to Accelerate Water Quality Improvement'.
September 21, 2022 - Nandita presented the plenary talk at the 2022 LTER All Scientists Meeting 'From Science to Action: 'Can Comparative Biogeochemistry inform policy?'
September 19, 2022 - Nandita participated in a panel on nature-based solutions at the Sustainable Futures Initiative launch. Watch a recording of the session here.

Summer 2022

July 28, 2022 - Fred Cheng successfully defended his PhD thesis titled 'Biogeochemistry Across Spatiotemporal Scales: The Role of Reactive Interfaces in Landscape Contaminant Fluxes.' Congratulations Fred!

Winter 2022

March 10, 2022 - Tori Grootjen successfully defended her Master's thesis titled 'Quantifying the role of reservoirs in altering phosphorus dynamics using a combination of data analysis and process modeling'. Congratulations Tori!
February 16, 2022 - Nandita was an invited speaker in the Ecology and Evolution Seminars series presenting on 'Water Quality Challenges and Opportunities from the Local to the Global Scale'.

Fall 2021

December 9, 2021 - Nandita presented as part of CVC's Research Colloquium on 'Nutrient concentration-discharge patterns across the Great Lakes Basin'.
December 9, 2021 - Nandita presented at the 2021 AGU International Critical Zone Network-of-Networks Early Career Workshop 'Catchment legacy sources and sinks control nutrient dynamics'.

Fall 2020

October 22, 2020 - Nandita presented at the Ontario Water Works Association Water Efficiency Webinar 'Water Demand and Conservation Post Pandemic'.
September 30, 2020 - Nandita was awarded the Sulzman Award for Excellence in Education and Mentoring by the AGU Biogeosciences Section. Congratulations Nandita!
September 29, 2020 - Nandita moderated Day 1 of the Water Institute Research Conference 2020, discussing the question 'How do we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in a post-COVID world?'.
September 23, 2020 - Nandita presented as part of the Lake Futures Webinar Serie s, on 'Sustainable Urbanscapes: Nutrient Cycling in the Greater Toronto Area'. A recording of the webinar is now available
September 16, 2020 - John Dony successfully defended his MASc thesis, titled 'A Random Forest in the Great Lakes: Exploring Nutrient Water Quality in the Laurentian Great Lakes Watersheds'. Congratulations John!

Spring 2020

August 7, 2020 - Joy Liu successfully defended her MASc thesis, titled 'Checkered Landscapes: Quantifying Dominant Controls on Nitrogen Legacies and Time Lags along the River Continuum'. Congratulations Joy!
July 29, 2020 - Nandita kicked off the Lake Futures Webinar Series, with a talk on 'Watershed Nutrient Legacies and their Impact on Current and Futures Water Quality in the Lake Erie Basin'.
June 25, 2020 - Nandita was an expert panelist on the science panel for the Virtual Workshop: Agriculture Considerations for the Canada Water Agency.
June 15, 2020 - The Global Water Futures Annual Science Meeting opens its virtual poster gallery. Posters by the Basu Lab are available for viewing over the course of the summer.
June 8-12, 2020 - Danyka Byrnes and Tyler Hampton presented virtual posters at the Society for Freshwater Science Summer of Science online conference.
May 4-8, 2020 - Nandita Basu presented displays at EGU 2020 Sharing Geoscience Online.

Winter 2020

March 10, 2020 - Nandita Basu travelled to Ottawa to take part in Water Day on the Hill, along with 24 other water scientists from 14 institutions. There she discussed solutions to key water challenges in Canada, including algal blooms, nutrient pollution and climate change, with senior federal officials.
February 3, 2020 - Basu Lab members Fred Cheng, Joy Liu and John Dony presented at the World Wetlands Day research symposium at the University of Waterloo. Well done!
January 30, 2020 - Nandita Basu gave a seminar titled 'Land use legacies, climate change and the future of our water' at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York.
January 14, 2020 - Nandita Basu named the new director of the Collaborative Water Program at the University of Waterloo. Congratulations Nandita!

Fall 2019

December 9-13, 2019 - Basu Lab members attended the AGU Fall Annual Meeting presenting several talks and posters. Great job to all of our presenters!
December 4, 2019 - Congratulations to Simon Lin for winning third place in the AGU Virtual Poster Undergraduate Showcase! Watch his submission titled 'Water Quality Responses of Wildfire-Affected Forest Catchments'. Well done!
November 28, 2019 - Congratulations to Danyka Byrnes for successfully defending her Master's thesis on 'Typologies of Nitrogen Surplus across Continental US: Shifting Hostspots and Dominant Controls'. Great work Danyka!
November 25, 2019 - Congratulations to Tyler Hampton for passing his comprehensive exams!
November 23, 2019 - Nandita Basu honoured as a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Congratulations Nandita!
October 23, 2019 - Nandita Basu gave a talk as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Saskatchewan. Watch the full lecture online.
September 19, 2019 - Nandita gave a public lecture at the Waterloo Public library with the Royal Canadian Institute for Science on water quality as part of Science Literacy Week.
September 11, 2019 -Nandita has been named a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Congratulations!

Spring 2019

August 21, 2019 - Congratulations to Alex Werenka for defending his Master's thesis titled, 'Recoupling the Livestock Nutrient Economy: A Path forward for Water Quality Improvement'.
July 12, 2019 - Joy Liu presented a poster titled 'Checkered Landscapes: Spatial Targeting of Watershed Management Practices to Minimize Time Lags ' at the joint meeting of the 27th Annual Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Canadian Geophysical Union in Montreal, QC.
June 19-21, 2019 - Nandita and Joy Liu traveled to Denmark to attend the 3rd Annual LEAP Meeting at the University of Copenhagen.
June 6, 2019 - Nandita received the 2018 Outstanding Performance Award for her outstanding contribution in both teaching and scholarship. Congratulations Nandita!
May 24-30, 2019 - Basu Lab members are volunteering at the Waterloo-Wellington Children's Groundwater Festival, sharing the importance of water conservation with local elementary students.
May 15-17, 2019 - The Basu Lab traveled to Saskatoon, SK to present research and share ideas at the Global Water Futures Annual Science Meeting. Nandita and Melani gave talks about their work, while John and Lamisa presented posters on their research.
May 10, 2019 - John Dony has been awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)! Congrats John!
May 6, 2019 - Congratulations to Melani Samson for successfully completing her Master's Seminar on her research, 'The Urban Metabolism of the Greater Toronto Area: A Study of Nitrogen and Phosphorus across and Urban, Suburban, and Rural Continuum'. Great job Melani!

Winter 2019

April 2, 2019 - Tyler Hampton presented a poster at EGU in Vienna on his work titled, 'Flow changes at the annual versus seasonal scale following wildfire in the American West'.
April 1, 2019 - Tyler Hampton received the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship! Congratulations Tyler!!
April 1, 2019 - Idhaya Ilampooranan successfully defended his PhD (title: Modeling Nutrient Legacies and Time Lags - A Midwestern Case Study). Great job Idhaya!
March 22, 2019 - World Water Day at the University of Waterloo. The Basu Lab participated through poster presentations (Danyka), lightning talks (Alex & Joy) and videos about Canadian water issues (John, Tyler, & Lamisa).
March 26, 2019 - Nandita was an invited speaker at SESYNC in Annapolis, Maryland. Her seminar, titled "A Race against Time", will focus on nutrient legacies and time lags.
March 29, 2019 - Nandita was one of the keynote speakers at the annual AGU Hydrology Days in Colorado! She gave the Borland Hydrology Lecture on Friday, titled "Signatures of Human Impact".
March 8, 2019 - Joy Liu won 3rd place at the Civil and Environmental Engineering heat of the University of Waterloo 3 Minute Thesis competition! Great job Joy!
February 28, 2019 - Nandita and Kim both presented on their legacy phosphorus work at ASLO 2019 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
February 11, 2019 - Nandita was an invited speaker for the Stanford Woods seminar! Her talk was titled, "Signatures of Human Impact: Legacies, Climate Change and the Future of Our Waters".
February 4, 2019 - Meghan McLeod won the Best Undergraduate Poster award at the 2019 World Wetlands Day Symposium at University of Waterloo. Congratulations Meghan!
February 4, 2019 - Tyler Hampton presented his work at the 2019 World Wetlands Day Symposium at the University of Waterloo.

Fall 2018

Dec, 2018 - Nandita was recognized with the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision from the Faculty of Engineering. Congratulations Nandita!
Dec 12, 2018 - Nandita interviewed by The Record about the impacts proposed Bill 66 could have on our environment. Read the full article here.
Dec 10-14, 2018 - The Basu Lab attends AGU 2018!
Dec 6, 2018 - Nandita was an invited speaker for the Michigan Drinking Water Workshop at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was a lead-off speaker in a session focused on Source Water Issues.
Dec 5, 2018 - The Basu Lab was part of the Local Water Solutions workshop in Waterloo, engaging with stakeholders from around the Great Lakes Region. As the principal investigator, Nandita presented about her project Lake Futures and Kim presented about the project LEAP as a co-investigator. Many of our students were part of the poster session, displaying their research in an innovative way.
Nov 15, 2018: Nandita was a invited speaker at Ohio State University for their SENR Seminar Series. Her talk was titled "Back to the Future: How Past Land Use Impacts current Water Quality".
Nov 8, 2018: Congratulations to Kim who was offered a faculty position at the University of Illinois, Chicago! She'll be starting the position in January.
November 2018: We're excited to announce Fred and Nandita won the 2017 Water Resources Research Editors' Choice Award for their paper entitled "Role of small water bodies in landscape nutrient processing".
October 2018: John received the UW Provost Graduate Scholarship for his master's studies. Congrats!

Spring 2018

July 23-26, 2018: Nandita is an invited speaker this week at the Sixth Interagency Conference on Research in Watersheds (ICRW) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The conference will explore research and adaptive management approaches to meet challenges associates with landscape disturbance, nutrient and pollutant loading, hydrologic alterations, invasive species, etc.
June 2018: We're excited to announce that Fred won the AGU 2018 Horton (Hydrology) Research Grant to study reactive interfaces in agroecosystems. Congrats, Fred!
14 June 2018: Kim presented her work on landscape nutrient legacies at the 2018 Chesapeake Bay Modeling Symposium in Annapolis, MD!
11-14 June 2018: We sent our biggest conference contingent yet to the annual CGU Meeting! Fred won the CGU 2018 Award for Best Student Paper!
7 June 2018: Fred represented the Basu Lab at GRADTalks for Drinking Water at the University of Waterloo.
4 June 2018: Joy, Melani, Kim, and Nandita to present their work at the Global Water Futures Annual Scientific Meeting! Special congrats to Kim for winning best presentation for postdoctoral fellows!
25 May 2018: Congrats to Danyka for receiving the well-deserved Ontario Graduate Scholarship for your master's program!
20-24 May 2018: Kim, Fred and Nandita presented their work at the SFS Annual Meeting! Check our the schedule here!
20 May 2018: Wow! Great job Tyler for receiving the prestigious Ontario Trillium Scholarship for your PhD!
14 May 2018: The Basu Lab family is getting larger! Welcome to postdoctoral fellow Richard Marinos from Dr. Bernhardt's research group at Duke University. So excited to have you join us!

Winter 2018

30 Apr 2018: Welcome to visiting PhD student Shanghua Li who came all the way from Germany!
10 Apr 2018: Nandita gets recognized for outstanding research at with the Engineering Research Excellence Award!
22 Mar 2018: A big congrats to Kim and Nandita for getting their legacy paper published in Science! Read more about the paper in the New York Times, The Guardian, and NPR!
22 Mar 2018: Congrats Fred for winning best poster in hydrological sciences at the World Water Day research symposium!
2 Mar 2018: Four of our graduate students competed at the Civil and Environmental Engineering 3 Minute Thesis heat. Good job Alex, Danyka, Fred and Joy! Congrats to Fred for coming third! Check out the talks here!
2 Feb 2018: Congrats Danyka for winning best graduate poster at World Wetlands Day!
2 Jan 2018: Welcome to our Winter 2018 coop students Linea and Chloe!

Fall 2017

11 Dec 2017: Kim and Nandita head to New Orleans for the AGU Fall meeting! Check out their abstracts here!
2 Dec 2017: The Basu Lab competes for the best gingerbread houses! Who do you think had the best one?
22 Nov 2017: Team Prosperous Phosphorus edges out the Notorious Nitrogens at the escape room duel by five minutes. Find out who's the limiting nutrient next time!
27 Oct 2017: Check out our pictures from our Halloween group meeting!
24 Oct 2017: Our Youtube channel is up!
11 Sept 2017: Good job Sara and Tejasvi on your talks about urban irrigation and sociohydrology of India at the Water Research Conference!
8 Sept 2017: Congrats Sara for passing your comprehensive exams!
5 Sept 2017: Welcome to Danyka, Joy, and Guy! We're excited to have you join our lab!

Spring 2017

15 Aug 2017: Kim and Nandita go global! They chaired a session on nutrient cycles in the anthropocene (Session 11g) at the Goldschmidt geochemical conference in Paris.

26 June 2017: Fred published his first paper on small water bodies as biogeochemical hotspots in the landscape! Read the paper here.
25 June 2017: Fred and Nandita heads off to Lewiston, Maine for the Gordon Research Conference on Catchment Sciences.
June 2017: Kickoff meetings abound for our SPG and LEAP projects at the GRCA in Cambridge with our stakeholders as well as in Coimbra, Portugal with our international partners. Find out more at the project pages.
14 June 2017: A well deserved W.B. Pearson Medal goes to Kim in recognition of creative research in a PhD thesis from the Faculty of Science.
8 June 2017: The Lake Futures project has been funded! As the PI, Nandita will be looking at how to enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of lakes and their watersheds. This project is part of the larger Global Water Futures project - more information can be found about Lake Futures can be found here. We are also looking for students and postdocs!
30 May 2017: Idhaya gives a talk about modelling nitrogen legacies in the landscape with SWAT at CGU in Vancouver.
17-18 May 2017: Kim and Nandita chaired a session at IAGLR 2017 titled "Nutrient sources, transport and retention across scales: measurement, modeling and management" in Detroit filled with two days of great talks.
1 May 2017: Welcome to the research group Alex! We're excited to have you start here as a grad student!

Winter 2017

13 April 2017: Good job Fred for completing your MASc seminar!
12 April 2017: Congrats Tejasvi for passing your PhD comprehensive exam!
6 April 2017: Our nutrient legacies research is going global with the funding for LEAP! See the news release from the Water Institute here and available positions for the project.
17 March 2017: Congrats Sara and Fred for receiving the three year NSERC Doctoral Awards!!
2 February 2017: Happy World Wetlands Day! Fred joins a group of fun speakers and talked about the importance of size on nutrient cycles in wetlands.
23 January 2017: Welcome to visiting researcher Yan Liu from the University of Tuebingen, Germany.

Fall 2016

12-16 December 2016: Great showing by our research group at the 2016 AGU Fall meeting! A busy week with two invited talks, two other talks, two pop-up sessions and a poster!
1 December 2016: Congrats to Kim for publishing "Two Centuries of Nitrogen Dynamics" in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Read it at GBC!

8 November 2016: Nandita and Kim joins the Water Institute delegation to the University of Bordeaux to strengthen and explore areas of collaboration and research directions.
12 September 2016: Congratulations Kim for successfully defending your PhD thesis "The Nitrogen Legacy: Understanding Time Lags in Catchment Response as a Function of Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Controls". Onwards to great and even more exciting things!
September 2016: Congrats also to Xaioyi for successfully defending her MS thesis "Spatio-Temporal Patterns in Net Anthropogenic Nitrogen and Phosphorus Inputs Across the Grand River Watershed!

Spring 2016

29 July 2016: Congrats to Tejasvi who got first runner-up for Best Presenter at the WatIF conference at Queen's University, Hamilton!
7 July 2016: New paper by Kim and Mike on the sociohydrologic dynamics of rainwater harvesting tanks published in HESS. Read it here!
30 June 2016: Good luck Kim at Goldschmidt 2016 in Yokohama , Japan for your invited talk on long-term N legacies in the Mississippi and Susquehanna!
7-10 June 2016: Great times were had at IAGLR 2016 with presentations by Kim (biogeochemical regimes in CQ relationships), Idhaya (modelling time lags using SWAT) and Nandita (nutrient time lags in the Grand River Watershed) at the University of Guelph. Click here for more details and abstracts.

Winter 2016

28 April 2016: Great attendance at the uWaterloo Water Institute Research Symposium for Nandita's talk on nitrogen legacies in the plenary and for our research team's posters! Details>>
19 April 2016: Nandita invited to speak on "The impacts of tile drainage on landscape quantity and quality" at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.
13 April 2016: Great job Mike at your MASc thesis seminar on the socio-ecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India
3 April 2016: Congratulations to Fred for receiving a NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Masters)!
22 March 2016: Congrats to Tejasvi for winning the poster contest at UW & WLU's World Water Day in the Water Policy, Management & Governance category!
15 March 2016: New paper published on nitrogen legacies in anthropogenic landscapes in Environmental Research Letters. Congrats Kim! Read it here.
11 March 2016: Good luck to Tejasvi and Fred at the Civil and Environmental Engineering 3-Minute Thesis contest!
March 2016: New website launched!