Bowling Green , Ky. - Dr. Chris Groves and Dr. Wei-Ping Pan were in Washington, D.C., last week to discuss Western Kentucky University’s “China Environmental Health Project.”

Dr. Groves, director of WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, and Dr. Pan, director of WKU’s Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology, talked about the project’s karst water resource and air quality components during a Nov. 8 meeting at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

WKU is partnering with the China Environment Forum, which is part of the Wilson Center, on the project seeking solutions for environmental health problems associated with the natural conditions in China. The “China Environmental Health Project” is made possible by the sponsorship of the U.S. Agency for International Development, with the support by Sen. Mitch McConnell, and matching funds from project partners.

The China Environment Forum hosted Dr. Groves, Dr. Pan and a key Chinese partner, Professor Yuan Daoxian from Southwest University of China, for a meeting where they talked about initial karst water and coal project activities. More than 50 representatives of government agencies and academic groups attended the session.
Dr. Groves will manage the karst water resource project, while Dr. Pan will manage the air quality project. Dr. Jennifer Turner, who directs the China Environment Forum, will oversee community outreach, research dissemination, and training of Chinese nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that work with WKU and Chinese scientists.

Dr. Groves has been conducting karst and water resource research in China for more than a decade and has been working on the environmental health project since 2002.

Some 80 million people are estimated to live in the southwest China karst region where much of the work will be focused, about 8-10 million of whom live below the Chinese poverty level equivalent to about $85 per year.
As part of the project, WKU faculty and students will travel to China to conduct seminars, field work and training. Chinese scholars and students also will visit WKU for training, which will include work in hydrogeology and water resources, Geographic Information Systems, and coal combustion technology to better understand air quality issues.

“The China project is creating significant new learning and research opportunities for WKU students and faculty and fits clearly within our mission of becoming a leading American university with international reach,” said Dr. David Keeling, head of WKU’s Department of Geography and Geology. “China likely will become the most significant economic and environmental region over the coming decades, so understanding more about its people and resources is vital for our students’ ability to achieve success in a global society.”
More information on the Nov. 8 session at the Wilson Center is available online at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1421&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=206921

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974.

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