clean-water

Mark Bransom Delivers the 2024 Dean’s Distinguished Lecture

Mark Bransom, CEO of Klamath River Renewal Corp., delivered the third Dean’s Distinguished Lecture to a rapt audience on May 21 at the LaSells Stewart Center. The occasion, which was tied thematically to the Clean Water Showcase the following day, served as a celebration of sorts for the monumental effort Bransom led in KRRC’s removal of four of the six dams along the Klamath River, the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history.

Discovering a passion for clean water research

Elise Cordle’s senior year at South Albany High School ended abruptly (and three months early) with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Classes were canceled; graduation celebrations were postponed. But that didn’t thwart Cordle’s ambition to be the first in her family to attend college.

“College is something that was always talked about in my family,” Cordle said. “My parents would have attended if they’d had the opportunity, and it was something they really wanted for me.”

A way with water

When asked why she has focused her career on water, Meghna Babbar-Sebens has a simple answer: “Water is life.”

Clean water is precious in India, where she grew up. According to a recent report by the World Bank, India contains 18% of the world’s population, but just 4% of the world’s water resources.

Pure water from a box is project’s promise

What if you could give millions of people access to safe drinking water and help solve the climate crisis at the same time? As a bonus, you could help your own community prepare for when the Big One comes.

That’s the vision behind a personal-sized water treatment appliance now in development by a team led by two Oregon State engineering alumni.

“For most people around the world, water out of the tap has to be treated, not optionally for better taste but to make it safe to drink,” said Paul Berg, B.S. civil engineering ’78.