A $9 million gift from an alumni's estate helped the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology open a new center focused on hydrological innovation and generating collaborative research to avert adverse effects of climate change in the Southwest.
The Hantush-Deju National Center for Hydrologic Innovation opened Friday on the New Mexico Tech campus. Its objective is "to have really creative, basic research that is applied and used to create a more sustainable water resource not only for our state but for our nation, and hopefully internationally," said Stephen G. Wells, Ph.D., the president of New Mexico Tech.
Wells hopes research conducted by the new center will further a "long-term history in leadership in hydrological sciences" at New Mexico Tech. Collaboration between different New Mexico institutions will be key to this objective, he said. Resources through the center will help expand efforts between New Mexico Tech and two other research institutions, New Mexico State University and the University of New Mexico.
New Mexico Tech's work with Sandia Laboratory in Los Alamos on using artificial intelligence in hydrologic systems will also expand thanks to resources provided through the new center, Wells said.
"We hope to build capacity through those kinds of partnerships and research areas," he said.
Details about the center had been in the making for over four years, Wells said. Climate change that has worsened water access and drought conditions in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest pushed New Mexico Tech to open the center now, he said.
The estate of Shari and Raul Deju, Ph.D., one of the namesakes for the center, provided a $9 million endowment to New Mexico Tech, which the university matched, for opening and operating the center.
Wells said the center will cost around $400,000 per year to operate; Dr. Deju's endowment will provide $100,000 per year toward these costs.
Hydrologist Mahdi Hantush, Ph.D., the center's other namesake, founded the university's hydrology program in the late 1950s. Raul Deju studied under Hantush at New Mexico Tech. Several past New Mexico Tech faculty have won awards through the Geological Society of America for hydrogeology research.
Receiving significant support through donations makes the hydrologic innovation center a unique expansion for New Mexico Tech, Wells said. He said financial support for research usually comes from the state of New Mexico.
"To have a donor step up and say, 'I want to guarantee from my estate when those funds come in that this goes on and on and on and grows,' is a huge step for the university," Wells said.
Daniel Stephens, Ph.D., the founder and principal hydrologist at Albuquerque-based environmental services company Daniel B. Stephens & Associates, Inc., is the center's interim director. Wells said the center has access to another $3 million endowment to go toward hiring a permanent director to start in early 2023.
New Mexico Tech's total combined endowment is around $100 million said Katie Bauer, interim marketing and communications director at the university. Donations put forward for the hydrologic innovation center represent nearly 20% of that total endowment.
