New York, NY – As a milestone of their U.S.-China EcoPartnership, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and Peking University are organizing a conference addressing "The Water-Energy Nexus: Sustainability and Global Challenges" in Beijing on April 17, under the leadership of Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., dean of NYIT's School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, and Chunmiao Zheng, director of the Center For Water Research at Peking University.

Experts including Changqing Song, Ph.D., Deputy Director of Earth Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Nancy Sung, Ph.D., Program Director, U.S. National Science Foundation, will discuss global water challenges. Robert Ivy, who directs the U.S. Department of Energy's section at Beijing's U.S. Embassy, will join Dongxiao Zhang, Ph.D., founding Chair of Peking University's Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, and others to explore the water-energy nexus. A detailed agenda is available at http://www.nyit.edu/events/2014_water_conference. Several government officials from both the U.S. and China will participate in the conference, as will subject-matter experts from industry, government agencies, and academia.

Much of the conference will feature themed presentations by other U.S.-China EcoPartnership teams:

Clean Water Protection and Management

• EcoPartnership on Groundwater Monitoring, Protection and Training between NYIT and Peking University
• EcoPartnership for Wetland and Eco-Development between Tulane University and East China Normal University
• EcoPartnership on Great Rivers between the Nature Conservancy's Great Rivers Partnership and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's Yangtze River Fishery Administration

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Technologies

• EcoPartnership on Energy Efficiency between the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Beijing Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Center
• EcoPartnership on Innovative Bio-gas Technologies between Stony Brook University and Tongji University

By-Product Synergy for Water and Energy Efficiency

• EcoPartnership on Manufacturing Commercial Plastics from Agricultural Residues between the Coca-Cola Company and the Yangtze River Delta Circular Economy Institute

Water/Energy Information Systems

• EcoPartnership on Clean Water – Groundwater Protection's partners: Wuhan University's International School of Software, NYIT, and HDR, Inc.

Dr. Anid said of the conference, "We meet in China for the third time to address pressing global sustainability issues. The Water-Energy conference theme positions NYIT at the forefront of knowledge-sharing and at the helm of science and technology innovation and advances."

The NYIT-Peking University "EcoPartnership on Groundwater Monitoring, Protection, and Training" aims to promote a comprehensive approach to creating innovations in sustainable groundwater supply and protection in China and the United States, ranging from the introduction of technology breakthroughs in groundwater monitoring, pollution control, and remediation, to improved training for groundwater management. The EcoPartnership will address severe groundwater shortages and contamination in select sites in both nations, as well as strengthen ongoing collaborations between the two universities as part of a team that also includes Wuhan University, the International Society for Water Solutions of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and HDR|HydroQual, an industrial partner.

The Water-Energy Nexus conference is followed on April 18 by a workshop on "Clean Water Matters: Challenges and Research Perspectives." The overarching goal of the workshop is to initiate joint research collaborations among scholars in China and the United States to address pressing water challenges affecting both nations, with potential applicability to other regions of the world. Specific objectives are to build a research platform for collaboration that supports active engagement and joint approaches to clean water challenges facing both nations; to form a U.S.-China water research and education community; and, ultimately, to establish a joint research consortium.

With its hub in New York and campuses around the world, including China, NYIT has pledged to promote technology as a tool to address pressing global issues, and to work toward finding sustainable solutions in areas such as water and energy.

NYIT President Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., will deliver opening remarks at the conference. Faculty members from the NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, including Dean Anid, are also among the speakers.

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About NYIT

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 13,000 students attending campuses on Long Island and Manhattan; in Nanjing, China; in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.; in Vancouver, Canada; at other global partner universities; and online.

Led by President Edward Guiliano, NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. To date, nearly 95,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit nyit.edu.

Elizabeth Sullivan
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