Center for Water Research

Spotlight on an NU Water Book

NU anthropologist Mark Hauser’s “Mapping Water in Dominica” (2021) examines how colonial sugarcane plantations devastated natural water systems in 18th-century Dominica. This research connects historical environmental exploitation to modern water scarcity issues, offering insights for sustainability and environmental justice work.

A Big Win for Water

Major update from our March Watering Hole event! Rob Weinstock’s case against Trump Tower’s unauthorized Chicago River water intake has won. Trump Tower will:

– Stop harming aquatic life
– Comply with Clean Water Act
– Pay $4.8M settlement ($1.5M penalties, $3M restoration)

This record Illinois settlement will fund new fish habitat through Friends of the Chicago River.

New Paper Alert! Ultrasensitive Water Contaminant Detection with Transcription Factor Interfaced Microcantilevers

Congrats to McCormick School of Engineering’s Dilip Kumar Agarwal, Tyler Lucci, Jaeyoung Kirsten Jung, @Angel Green Samuel, Gajendra Shekhawat, Jean-Francois Gaillard, Julius Lucks & Vinayak Dravid for their paper in ACS Publications. Their work on ultrasensitive water contaminant detection is a breakthrough for global water quality monitoring.

New Paper Alert! Enhancing Water Harvesting Efficiency in a Phosphonate Metal–Organic Framework through Controlled Defect Generation

Congrats to Northwestern University Department of Chemistry’s Owen Bailey, Haomiao Xie Jinlei Cui, Courtney Smoljan, Kent Kirlikovali Songi Han & Omar Farha for their paper in ACS Publications. Their work on metal–organic frameworks as a tunable class of crystalline porous materials is an exciting advance for atmospheric water harvesting.