2009 Presenters

Rajendra K. Pachauri

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Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,* Geneva, Switzerland

Focus: How climate change may further stress water resources, especially exacerbating problems of clean water access and food security for the world’s poor

* The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Asit K. Biswas

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President, Third World Centre for Water Management, Atizapan, Mexico

Focus: Importance of water resources in alleviating poverty in developing countries and water as a basic human right

Peter H. Gleick

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President, Pacific Institute, Oakland, California

Focus: Current state of world water resources and what the future might hold

William L. Graf

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University Foundation Distinguished Professor, Professor and Chair of Geography, University of South Carolina

Focus: State of rivers in the United States, highlighting current management issues such as river restoration, channel change, damming and dam removal

Nancy N. Rabalais

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Executive Director, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin

Focus: Health of estuaries and coastal waters as a critical ecological and food security issue and indicator of unsustainable management of land and freshwater resources

Larry L. Rasmussen

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Emeritus Professor of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City

Focus: Ethical issues involved in water resource management and its connections to the well-being of the planet

David L. Sedlak

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Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Focus: Connection between chemicals, like hormones and other pharmaceuticals, in the waste stream and the quality of the aquatic environment

Shawn Otto (Replaces Derek Walcott)

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Co-founder and CEO of Science Debate 2008

Derek Walcott (Canceled)

Distinguished Scholar in Residence, University of Alberta, Emeritus Professor, Department of English, Boston University