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Mississippi-Mekong Partnership Forum

Date: Monday, October 17, 2005

Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Location: Seminar Room 105, The Cargill Building, 1500 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul Campus

Featured Talks:

National Research Council's Studies of U.S. River System Management

Dr. Jeffrey Jacobs - Senior Program Officer, Water Science and Technology Board, National Academy of Sciences

Building Partnerships Between Two Major Rivers: The Mississippi and the Mekong

Mr. Timothy Sullivan - President and CEO, Mississippi River Institute for Global Cooperation

Speaker Biographies:

Dr. Jeffrey Jacobs is a senior program officer with the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board. In his eight years at the NRC he has directed 15 studies on topics of river system planning, dam operations, river science programs, water utility operations, and Corps of Engineers planning guidance. Dr. Jacobs has also conducted research on water resources planning and international cooperation in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River Basin.

Since the late 1990s the NRC Water Science and Technology Board has evaluated many scientific and policy issues in the nation’s great river systems. This talk will explore the unique ecological, historical, hydrological, and institutional aspects of the Colorado, Columbia, Missouri and Upper Mississippi River systems, making comparisons among them and identifying common themes in river management approaches. Given the meeting locale and participants, there will be some emphasis on issues in the Upper Mississippi River.

Tim Sullivan is an attorney and policy consultant with many years of experience working domestically and internationally on food policy, water resource development and government regulatory issues. He is the former Executive Director of the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, and currently serves as the President and CEO of the Mississippi River Institute for Global Cooperation. Tim will talk about an innovative partnership between these two organizations, the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center and the Mekong River Commission, an inter-government agency responsible for development planning in the Lower Mekong River Basin. Learn what the Mississippi and the Mekong River Basins share in common, and how this partnership is helping to conserve water resources, promote sustainable development and improve quality of life in both basins.