Darrin Fresh Water Institute

Introduction[edit]

The Darrin Fresh Water Institute was elevated to a University Center in 2016 and is a multidisciplinary environmental research center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The center works with the Biological Sciences, Computer and Systems Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Computer Science, Science and Technology Studies, Cognitive Science, Electrical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Arts, and the School of Architecture to “understand the structure and function of aquatic, terrestrial atmospheric systems”. With a focus on Lake George, located just north of RPI in the Adirondacks region, this Institute has published almost 90 scientific papers. It primarily focuses on the consequences on the environment due to humans, specifically in the Northeastern United States.

History[edit]

The freshwater institute is named after Margaret A. and David M. Darrin and was first opened at Lake George located on Smith Bay in 1967. But in 1981, the Darrins provided additional funding in order to move the DFWI to the “Sunnyshores Summer Resort”. This is where it sits now, on Bolton Landing. This moving was essential to be closer to RPI and more visible to the people in the Lake George community.

The institute remained the same until 1995, when a $2.5 million Research and Teaching Facility was built, replacing the old motel which was four units and was the laboratory for the institute for over 10 years. In the early 2000s the main house of the institute had a major renovation and became an education center that now allows for year around research and education. Later, in 2014 Rensselaer built the Helen-Jo and John E. Kelly III Data Visualization Laboratory, a state-of-the-art research center that is designed specifically to combine both cutting-edge graphics processing and modern data collection.

The Jefferson Project[edit]

The most notable project the institute has worked on is the Jefferson Project. The project is named after Thomas Jefferson because of his beautiful description of Lake George in a letter to his daughter and its contributors are RPI, IBM, and the FUND for Lake George. It was set to be a three year, multi-million-dollar project through the DFWI with a goal to understand more about road salt, storm water runoff and invasive species in the lake. Lake George is an ideal body of water to study because not only of its size and shape, but it also has few external influences that would affect the water quality in the lake and 95 percent of the land around the lake is natural forest.

The project uses advanced data analytics, computing and data visualization techniques, 3-D compute modeling and simulation as well as historical data to get a brand new understanding of the lake. The monitoring system used shows circulation models in the lake which then are used to figure out how nutrients and contaminants will move throughout the lake. These models will help scientists now and in the future make decisions that will help to protect Lake George and keep it healthy.

Facilities[edit]

The Institute owns many different buildings and equipment to maximize the efficiency of research performed around Lake George. The main building, the Teaching and Research Facility, contains specialized laboratories to help people with their research [1]. These laboratories include areas devoted to water chemistry, microbiology, microscopy, and a teaching lab. In addition to this central building, the Institute also contains the Education Center and Lodge. This is a building with a floor for public seminars and a floor for the lodging of researchers. Aside from this lodging, there are also two cottages in the area for the researchers to stay in. With regards to research, the Institute owns the Helen-Jo and John E. Kelly III Data Visualization Laboratory to collect and visualize data in a modern setting. Finally, the Aquatic Research Facility is the location where ecological experimentation is conducted. The laboratory experiments are designed to mimic natural ecosystems and contains over 900 outdoor "mesocosms" for researchers to examine.