Jay Lund, Vice Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, and his wife Jean Lund have made a historic donation of $800,000 to the Center for Watershed Sciences. This large and generous gift will support graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary water research, pursue their own interests, and think creatively about how to tackle major water problems.

Water management is a critical part of any society, and UC Davis is uniquely situated to address water challenges in California and across the globe. UC Davis is also an ideal setting for hands-on, collaborative learning, such that new generations of water professionals are trained across multiple disciplines and in novel ways. The Lund gift is an investment in the next generation of water management leaders, which will have a long-lasting impact at UC Davis and the field of water resource management. The Lund gift will also further transdisciplinary sciences at the Center, by connecting previously disparate intellectual ideas towards innovation and real-world problems. As Jay Lund says, “Often, the students who end up changing the field have ideas that are more novel than the typical funding sources support. This type of funding allows students to develop intellectually on topics that are of their own selection.”

Read the full press release on UC Davis Dateline, "New Endowment Will Support Next Generation of Water Management Leaders," by Clémentine Sicard. March 21, 2023.