Newswise — Access to freshwater will soon be the major impetus for change in cities and for industry across the globe, says scientist David Garman. And he should know.

Garman, the founding dean of UWM’s graduate-level School of Freshwater Sciences, came to Milwaukee from a parched Australia, where residential water restrictions are a part of people’s everyday lives.

“The school should help position Milwaukee as a city of the future – one that is largely sustainable with its industries, water management, environmental footprint and energy,” he says. “It means a better lifestyle for all its inhabitants.”

Garman says his role is to usher Milwaukee toward that future and to amplify the city’s voice in the global discussion on freshwater. Through the school’s new Center for Water Policy, he will foster ties with Stockholm and Singapore, two recognized leaders in water policy.

Built on a half-century of Great Lakes research, the School of Freshwater Sciences is the only graduate school in the nation dedicated solely to the study of freshwater issues. It offers an interdisciplinary approach, blending modern aquatic sciences with expertise from UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, the Department of Economics and the School of Public Health.

Garman sees the school playing a role in economic development, from providing a specialized workforce to helping businesses tap into an exploding market for water solutions. He previously directed the Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre in New South Wales, a public-private incubator connecting researchers, engineers and industry officials to stimulate new sustainable technologies. Trained as a chemist, his experiences include projects as diverse as improving safe water services in Bangladesh and remediating eutrophic lakes in China. He also was chairman of a publicly listed water company and owned a water-tech business.

Garman is busy assembling an international review board for the school and has identified multiple research projects to expand, including those related to Great Lakes genomics, urban aquaculture, and new sensors that work in water.

And in five years time, Garman projects the school will turn out between 50 and 100 master’s and Ph.D. graduates – even some from Singapore and Stockholm.

From urban aquaculture and identifying emerging contaminants to creating new centers for Great Lakes genomics and water policy, go inside the School of Freshwater Sciences (and beneath the waves of Lake Michigan) in this video and see why the future of water lies in the hands of the UWM.