Dear Tulane Community,
There was a lot of buzz this week about Tulane rising to No. 39 in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best College rankings. It is always nice to have national recognition of what we already know, that Tulane is an extraordinary place.
This week we had another example of exactly why Tulane is so special. On the banks of the Mississippi River near downtown, we launched the ByWater Institute, an interdisciplinary research center where scientists will focus on how we can best safeguard, manage and live with water.
As this region knows all too well, water is an elemental force that can both sustain and threaten life. There are few issues more crucial to our region – and indeed to much of the world – than preserving our communities against coastal erosion, rising sea levels and sinking deltas.
The ByWater Institute brings faculty from around the university and world together to work across disciplines. It also will serve as a hub for researchers in port cities from Tokyo to London facing the same problems. Not only that, the Institute will work with government and the business community to find entrepreneurial ways to tackle these problems with new technology and innovation. This is not just a question of science, but of sustainability.
There is no better location imaginable for students and researchers to study these issues than on the edge of the great river itself. The short video below, narrated by Tulane alumnus and NPR veteran Gwen Thompkins, will tell you more about this exciting new Tulane venture and remind you how Tulane is continuing to change the world – on both land and water.
