Career Thoughts

I think I want a career in this area at Wisconsin because it will allow me to pursue a career in watershed management/watershed sciences. There aren't many groups looking at the interactions of ecosystems, water resources, and other water dependent processes such as agriculture, industry, and drinking water. I'm starting to get a feeling that I will want to return to PA to protect the environment and address the challenges involving PA's water resources.  At the moment, the major issues are supplying clean drinking water and maintaining our strong ecological areas as pressures increase from natural gas drilling and development.  The Chesapeake Bay is also a major issue as PA is responsible for the water quality that ends up there.

There is an even larger issue that I'm interested in of creating a water resources management framework that is completely sustainable.  Eventually, I see this framework spreading across the United States as water supplies are redirected from water-rich areas to depleted areas.  I feel this will be a very important step as America's infrastructure needs improved/replaced. There will be an opportunity to improve on our old system and implement a sustainable solution instead of just patching and copying old designs. We could also create a template for other countries where freshwater supplies are an even larger issue.

I feel the question of getting a PhD or an MS is also important in determining if I eventually want to be involved with these big picture problems. PhDs will be asked to solve these problems, but I think many PhD's work often does unnoticed as many ideas are never implemented. I feel an MS will be sufficient for allowing me to get access to the organizations involved with these problems, and also, allow me to climb to more managerial positions where I can guide the direction of projects.