Roger Bales and Brandi McKuin

Dr. Roger Bales is Distinguished Professor of Engineering and a founding faculty member at UC Merced, and has been active in water- and climate-related research for for over 30 years. His scholarship includes over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and more presentations, book chapters, and reports. Currently, his work focuses on California’s efforts to build the knowledge base and implement policies that adapt our water supplies, critical ecosystems and economy to the impacts of climate warming. He works with leaders in state agencies, elected officials, federal land managers, water leaders, non-governmental organizations, and other key decision makers on developing climate solutions for California. He is a fellow in the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a professor at UC Merced since 2003, an Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UC Berkeley since 2013. Previously, he was a Professor of hydrology at the University of Arizona from 1984 to 2003. He is Director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, Director of the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory, and Director of the UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative. Brandi McKuin: My research interests include the economic and environmental sustainability dimensions of the food-water-energy nexus. I have applied techno-economic and life-cycle assessment to a diverse range of topics including seafood, solar-photovoltaic-shaded irrigation canals, and microalgae biofuels.