Renaissance Scientists: Collaboration across disciplines to meet the world's water-related challenges.

Abstract:

Water is the source for pressures throughout the world as supplies of freshwater become more scarce and stressed. These pressures can be realized through the lens of water science, policy, geopolitics, food security, and even military conflicts. Combined with a boom in global population, these pressures provide wide-reaching problems that need to be addressed presently and in the future across many disciplines including the sciences, engineering, economics, and policy.

These issues lead to a complex system of problems that cannot be addressed without a multidisciplinary approach. As we enter a world where regions of water scarcity become the norm, water scientists and engineers need to be at the table - with experts in other fields - shaping solutions in the areas of policy, disaster response, and management.

I will argue that, as early-career scientists, there are exciting new challenges that are open, or will be opening, to us as experts in our respective fields. I will also provide my insights and opinions as to what we can do to position ourselves to impact these issues. These beliefs form the basis of the "Renaissance scientist," taking its name from the polymaths of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The name suggests that we need to not only leverage our own area expertise, but also be able to effectively learn from and communicate with experts in seemingly diverse fields to meet the world's water-related challenges.