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EPA STAR Grantee Honored for Work in the Great Lakes
(October, 2003) An EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grantee has been named the first recipient of the International Joint Commission (IJC) Biennial Award for Great Lakes Science. Dr. Jan Ciborowski, a professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, was honored for his role in the U.S.-Canadian effort to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Great Lakes.
Dr. Ciborowski was particularly cited for his work in the restoration of Lake Erie, where he is helping policymakers on both sides of the border make critical decisions regarding cleanup of the lake. The IJC assists the United States and Canada in implementing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
"This is truly a collaborative award", said Dr. Ciborowski. "It reflects an effort involving many people to restore and protect the magnificent international resources of these lakes."
Dr. Ciborowski's STAR grant work includes assessing indicators of ecological health in the Great Lakes coastal region, using fish and invertebrates as environmental barometers. To date, he has taken samples from 67 sites across five geographic areas ranging from bays to river-related wetlands. A key project goal is to recommend sets of indicators for specific ecological situations in the region, a research approach under EPA's Estuarine and Great Lakes Indicators Program (EaGLe).
The Canadian researcher is also participating in a STAR project to classify Great Lakes ecosystems and determine how biological conditions differ between degraded units of a classification and those units relatively untouched by human activity. He and his team have already developed an inventory of wetlands, embayments, and other features on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes Basin and are now summarizing the various uses of each river-influenced (riverine) wetland to identify those that are least disturbed.
Dr. Ciborowski is with the Department of Biological Sciences and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor. He is also Co-Director of the Lake Erie Millennium Network, which is assessing the Lake's ecosystem health. Dr. Ciborowski received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Alberta in 1982.
For more information, contact Estella Waldman at Waldman.Estella@epa.gov.