MONDAY, October 17, 2011

Sharon B. Megdal, Director, Water Resources Research Center, 
The University of Arizona
3:30pm - The Lousie Foucar Marshall Bldg., Room 490
Suggested parking: Main Gate Garage, 2nd St. & Euclid Ave.

Arizona and Israel face similar water challenges of freshwater scarcity.  Both regions require additional water resources to serve their growing populations and economies, which include thriving agricultural sectors.  Drawing upon several trips to Israel and interactions with Israeli academicians and practitioners, the seminar will examine similarities and differences in how water resources regulation, development, management and pricing are approached.

Sharon B. Megdal is Director of The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) and C.W. and Modene Neely Endowed Professor.  She is Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science. She serves as Co-Director of The University of Arizona Water, Environmental and Energy Solutions Program, which is funded by the Technology Research Initiative Fund (TRIF).  In 2010, Dr. Megdal was named Distinguished Outreach Professor.

Her work focuses on water resources management and policy, on which she writes and frequently speaks.  She places particular emphasis on how to achieve desired policy objectives in terms of institutional structures and possible changes to them.  Her current projects include: comparative evaluation of water planning and management in growing arid and semi-arid regions; meeting the water needs of the environment; water pricing; and transboundary aquifer assessment.  Dr. Megdal teaches the multi-disciplinary graduate course Arizona Water Policy.  She serves as an elected member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors, which oversees the Central Arizona Project.  Dr. Megdal has served on numerous state boards and commissions and holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Sharon Megdal has been awarded a fellowship from the Lady Davis Trust to serve as Visiting Professor at The Hebrew University for a portion of the Spring 2012 semester.  She has been interacting extensively with water professionals from the Middle East since the Arizona-Israeli-Palestinian workshop held in Tucson in September 2009.