[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Krantzberg_Gail.jpg” caption=”Gail Krantzberg”]Gail Krantzberg, Director of the Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy at McMaster University, will provide a Canadian perspective to the twelve-member Board of Directors of the newly formed Great Lakes Observing System Regional Association (GLOS-RA).

GLOS-RA is one of eleven regional nodes of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), and the only freshwater component. The non-profit corporation, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was formed to provide improved water management and data exchange across the international Great Lakes region, and to develop new products to support research, management and user communities. This information will be available to resource managers, researchers, educators, homeland security interests, the commercial shipping industry, and the recreational boating community, among others.

Krantzberg was the Director of the Great Lakes Regional Office of the International Joint Commission from 2001 to 2005, after having served on this bi-national treaty organization's Water Quality Board, Council of Great Lakes Research Managers, Sediment Priority Action Committee and Indicators Implementation Task Force. She worked for the Ontario Ministry of Environment from 1988 to 2001, as sediment specialist, coordinator of Great Lakes Programs, and senior policy advisor on the Great Lakes. A past president of the International Association of Great Lakes Research, Krantzberg completed her M.Sc. and PhD at the University of Toronto in the fields of ecology, biology, chemistry and toxicology. She has authored more than 90 scientific and policy articles on issues pertaining to ecosystem quality.

Planning is currently underway by GLOS for a bi-national three-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the St. Clair River – Lake St. Clair – Detroit River system. This modeling initiative is a critical element in implementation of a real time monitoring network for the waterway, which is needed by municipal, county, state/provincial and federal interests to protect drinking water supplies for southeast Michigan and southwestern Ontario. For more information, visit www.glos.us.

McMaster's Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy offers a master's degree to engineers and applied scientists focused on complex environmental matters. Core courses of the degree provide the content and methodological skills necessary for analyzing engineering and public policy problems, further enabling them to understand the application of science and technology to public policy.