Wendy D. Graham is the Carl S. Swisher Eminent Scholar in Water Resources and Director of the University of Florida Water Institute. She graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering. Her PhD is in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She conducts research in the areas of coupled hydrologic-water quality-ecosystem modeling; water resources evaluation and remediation; evaluation of impacts of agricultural production on surface and groundwater quality; and development of hydrologic indicators of ecosystem status. As Director she is responsible for establishing, conducting and evaluating research, education and outreach programs conducted under the auspices of the University of Florida Water Institute.

Paloma holds a B.S degree in Biology, a M.S. degree in Environmental Sciences and a Ph.D in Geography, all earned at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has twenty years of experience supporting interdisciplinary teams addressing natural resource management and governance issues.

Paloma applies her interdisciplinary training, professional experience, and facilitation skills to support the Water Institute Research, Education and Outreach programs.  As Assistant Director she is responsible for the Water Institute Outreach, Stakeholder Engagement and Communication initiatives.

Since joining the Institute in 2018 she has fostered partnerships among Affiliate faculty and staff, external partners, and stakeholders; supported faculty, student and stakeholder teams to develop and execute externally funded research projects; and led the development of the Institute’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Action Plan.

Rob earned his Doctor of Science degree at the Centre of Hydrogeology, University of Neuchatel (Switzerland) in 2007. His research activities were developing a finite element code for coupled, variably saturated flows, solving problems related to non-linearity, numerical instability and flow coupling, validation and verification.

His research at the Water Institute includes the development of a particle-tracking scheme tailored for coupled surface-subsurface flows as well as a finite difference scheme for coupling conduit flow, subsurface matrix flow and surface flow in karst systems. The objective of these schemes is to gain further insights into complex natural flow systems.

At this moment his research is focused on developing and testing methods to generate random 2-D and 3-D conduit networks for incorporation into watershed scale flow and transport models, and develop and test coupled discrete-continuum flow and transport models for the Silver Springs basin in Florida.

Nathan holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Toledo. He earned his Ph.D. and M.E. in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida in 2018. His dissertation, “Linking Landscape Hydrologic Processes to Spring Ecosystem Dynamics”, investigated potential drivers of change in the primary producer communities of Florida’s spring-fed rivers using a multi-scale modeling approach. 

Some of his broad research interests include: the intersection of water, energy, food, and the environment; complex system dynamics; ecosystem dynamics and restoration; and the nature of how scientific inferences are obtained from data. He has experience in theoretical, applied, and experimental science in several disciplines, ranging from the development and implementation of mathematical models to the design and execution of field and laboratory experiments.

Nathan applies his multi-disciplinary experience to his research at the Water Institute, which focuses on understanding hydrological, ecological, and social dynamics in karst watersheds.

Christian holds an Associate’s degree in Mathematics from Santa Fe College where he graduated as a James Gregg Honors Scholar. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Florida in Fall 2022.

Christian’s career has been centered around supporting the research UF’s faculty and students partake in. He previously worked at the UF Survey Research Center as a Programming supervisor where he collaborated with clients and researchers to review and program their surveys. He then worked for the UF Center for Undergraduate Research as an Administrative Specialist I where he assisted with varied undergraduate research programs and scholarships that the center offered.

As the Program Assistant for the Water Institute he provides communications, programmatic and administrative assistance to our programs.