ORONO – A University of Maine scientist has become president-elect of the National Institutes for Water Resources.

Steve Kahl, a geochemist and director of the Sen. George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at UM, also coordinates Maine’s federally funded water resources research program.

The Mitchell Center is a network of 54 water research institutes located in every state and trust territory and the District of Columbia.

It receives federal funding through the U.S. Geological Survey. Directors work with local, state and federal agencies to tailor water research activities to local circumstances and priorities.

Kahl said that his new role will be an opportunity for UM to raise its national visibility and open doors at research funding agencies.

The duties of the position include providing testimony to Congress on the Water Resources Research Institute program and working with federal agencies to enhance research and management of water resources.

Kahl has already addressed the National Academy of Sciences about the future of Water Resources Research.

The election of an institute president from Maine is noteworthy because the position has been historically held by water research directors from western states with programs that are larger than those in the East. Only one president in the past decade has been from an eastern state – North Carolina in 2000.