Dr. John J. Warwick, a nationally regarded scientist in the study of pollutants in surface waters, has been appointed executive director of the Desert Research Institute’s Division of Hydrologic Sciences (DHS). Warwick was recruited from his position as professor and chair in the University of Florida's Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences.

DHS is the largest of DRI’s three research divisions, with 155 full- and part- time employees and a research and operating budget of about $9 million. The division has an extensive history of research across the Great Basin and Mojave Desert as well as undertaking numerous projects in other states and several foreign countries.

DRI President Stephen G. Wells described Warwick as a dynamic leader with vision and determination. “Dr. Warwick’s career experiences and reputation will serve his faculty, staff, and students well. We believe John can take DRI’s Hydrologic Sciences Division to the next level of national and international research.”

Warwick was a professor of hydrology at the University of Nevada, Reno, for eight years before moving to Florida in 1999. While at UNR, Warwick was also director of the Graduate Program of Hydrological Sciences, one of several UNR academic programs in which DRI research faculty have a significant role in teaching and graduate supervision through joint appointments between the two campuses of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

While at Florida, Warwick was also director of NASA’s Environmental Systems Commercial Space Technology Center. His primary research interests have focused on nutrient-related algae growth in streams, sediment and mercury movement in water systems, and non-point source pollution’s effects on stream water quality.

Warwick was named UNR’s Top Director of Graduate Programs in 1997 and received the school’s Hydrologic Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award in 1999. This year he was named a Fellow of the American Water Resources Association. He has been the lead or co-lead scientist on 31 significant research studies in the past ten years, and has published more than 120 journal articles, national and international conference papers, abstracts, reports, grants and feasibility studies.

A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI's annual $35 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.

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