Joan Rose, Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research.

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Joan Rose, Michigan State University’s Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research, was honored recently by the Southeast Asian island city-state of Singapore with a Public Service Medal.

The medal is awarded to individuals, including foreigners, who have given commendable public service. Rose’s award came from the Singapore Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.

 “This award is a well-deserved recognition of your valuable and good service to PUB and Singapore and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valuable contributions,” wrote Tan Gee Paw, chairperson of PUB, Singapore’s national water agency.

Rose has worked in Singapore on water issues for 10 years, serving on an advisory board for research on wastewater reuse and chairing an audit panel for six years. She lectures and has worked with professors at universities there and with Singaporean students at MSU.

 “Over the last 10 years Singapore went from struggling with water issues to becoming a water science hub,” said Rose, who also is co-director of the Center for Water Sciences and of the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment at MSU.

Singapore’s PUB launched its WaterHUB program in 2004 to harness technology, education and networking to build a professional water industry work force.

“I want to take what I have learned in Singapore and work toward a 10-year road map to establish Michigan as a U.S. WaterHUB for science, technology, education and entrepreneurship,” Rose added. “This would address water and a water-based economy through asset-management, and explicitly address the climate-water-energy nexus.”

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