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West is an applied scientist and educator, as well as a co-founder of an NGO, two private firms, a multimedia forum and a consultancy that assists environmental, entrepreneurial and educational groups with water-related issues. He has authored three books about the science and uniqueness of water, as well as a range of scientific journal articles addressing water pollution/remediation, aquatic chemistry/ecology, resource allocation, and the water-energy-food nexus. He lectures on the topics of global water quality, local water footprints, sustainable water technologies, hydromimicry, and collaborations among scientists, artists, designers and engineers in recognizing, communicating and addressing water challenges. His recent work focuses on the application of systems theory, emergence and pattern recognition in perceiving and describing water resource properties and watershed functions.
He is a former Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in the biological and environmental sciences from the University of California, as well as a Ph.D. in water resources from the University of Arizona. His interest in water is also related to a lifetime of experiential endeavors such as surfing, SCUBA diving, paddling and exploring natural waters worldwide.
Why Water?
I was born in Southern California and spent much of my early life along the beaches of north San Diego County. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the ocean and its various sounds, rhythms, flow forms and, eventually, the waves that propelled my surfboard. As my parents were both school teachers, there was never much doubt about my pursuing university degrees—the only question was what I would choose to study. In keeping with my childhood interests, I chose to study the oceans, water, and the natural world. I was especially interested in travel and field research, which led me to both freshwater and seawater in places as diverse as the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Channel Islands of California. While I enjoyed conducting research and interacting with other scientists, I was also drawn to communicating theories and revelations about water and nature through writing and lecturing. As a result, I taught classes in several university programs and co-founded a small firm that specialized in presenting scientific concepts to non-technical audiences.
Just prior to the millennium, I decided to take a break from my conventional work and moved to the remote north shore of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, where I resided for the better part of a decade. Surfing, swimming and kayaking, as well as hiking along mountain streams and traveling throughout Oceania, were the backdrop for my writing three books and focusing on how our perceptions of water may underlie to our largely self-created challenges with water. I believe that many of today’s environmental and water-related crises are a function of how we’ve been taught about the natural world and how the resulting perceptions have been translated into our actions and decisions. Much of my work during the last decade has been offering different views of water, including the ways that scientists interpret datasets, that managers/users evaluate conservation measures, and that innovators develop technologies.
In an effort to introduce the science and mystery of water to a wider cross section of people, I began collaborating with artists, graphic designers and storytellers who provided unique ways of incorporating and presenting water science, as well as providing their own perspectives on water that have influenced my research and understandings. My professional and personal relationships with water have taught me that a genuine appreciation of it cannot be confined to a single or even a few perspectives, experiences, or understandings. Instead, a combination of diverse viewpoints is essential to realizing the countless ways in which water influences health, climate, food, and all of our human institutions. My particular interests have been in water quality, hydromimicry, and the water-energy-food nexus; however, I am totally dependent on the research, visions, and inputs of countless others who have shared their diverse knowledge base—however it may have been acquired.
