PCBs were outlawed in the 1970s — so why don’t levels keep going down? Unfortunately, PCBs are almost everywhere. IIHR Research Engineer Keri Hornbuckle is well aware of how thoroughly PCBs have permeated our environment. What she wasn’t expecting to find was PCB11 — which had rarely before been reported — in the air near […]
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Sustainability at IIHR: Evolving with the Times
by Cornelia F. Mutel Sustainability. The word, as commonly used, focuses on maintaining life and function today, without compromising the potential of future generations or ecosystems. But it’s a word with many meanings, a word that is typically defined by the focus of the speaker and his or her priorities. At IIHR, sustainability considers the […]
Water Quality — Everyone’s Responsibility?
Farmer Brian Scott turns to look over his shoulder at the 60-foot wide, 24-row corn planter as it rolls through the field. Soon, however, Scott’s eyes settle back on a computer screen in the tractor cab. The screen shows a digital map of the route he set up for the tractor to follow through the […]
Fred Stern: Revolutionizing Ship Hydrodynamics
For 17-year-old Fred Stern, the future looked bright from the deck of a sailboat racing across the waters of Lake Ontario. The young man from Syracuse, N.Y., took advantage of his home’s close proximity to the Great Lakes to spend every moment he could sailing. With a small push from his father, Stern channeled his […]
Working the Numbers
For IIHR Assistant Research Engineer Gabriele Villarini, the flood that struck Iowa City in 2008 led him to a new interest in extreme weather events. The flood also affected him in a more personal way. The rising waters hit just as he was preparing for his PhD defense, and all university buildings were closed. He […]
Bioremediation: Cleaning Up Groundwater
Magic Microbes You might call Tim Mattes a magician of sorts — he may not pull a rabbit out of his hat, but he can transform known human carcinogens into a safer substance, using only naturally-occurring microbes. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the IIHR associate research engineer is exploring the use of micro-organisms […]
Water Sustainability Initiative
Visit the Water Sustainability Initiative website Download the 2017 Water Sustainability Initiative report Some problems are so complex, they require a multidisciplinary approach. The University of Iowa’s Water Sustainability Initiative (WSI) is designed to address one complex issue that affects every man, woman, and child on the planet: access to clean water. In 2009, the […]
The Intelligent Digital Watershed
People make decisions based on information at hand. Armed with better information, would Iowans make better land-use choices affecting water quality? That is the hope of the IIHR researchers who are developing the “Intelligent Digital Watershed” (IDW), but the verdict is still out, says IIHR Research Engineer Jerry Schnoor, the project’s principal investigator. Schnoor, who […]
Partnerships for Iowa Watersheds
We all need and use water. This fact underlines the urgent need to understand and balance our many and varied water needs in a sustainable way. A new project in the Iowa-Cedar Rivers Basin will do just that by promoting collaborative partnerships among stakeholders in the basin. In 2009, the Iowa-Cedar Rivers Basin was named […]
Anton Kruger: How Stuff Works
As a boy, Anton Kruger couldn’t resist dismantling his toys to find out how they worked. “Nothing was safe when I was around,” he admits. “My mom used to buy us these little wind-up toys. It wasn’t 10 minutes before I would open them and break them to see all the gears and such.” Kruger […]
