Melissa Farlow/ National Geographic Image Collection

New York Governor George Pataki announced in April 2003 that Rensselaer will manage the Upper Hudson Research, Education, and Outreach Satellite Center that will be part of the Rivers & Estuaries Center on the Hudson River — a world-class institute for the study of rivers and estuaries. Columbia University will manage the Lower Hudson Satellite Center.

The central Rivers & Estuaries Center will be located at Dennings Point in Beacon, N.Y. The Upper Hudson Satellite Center will be located on the waterfront in South Troy.

“The establishment of the Rivers & Estuaries Center on the Hudson is scientific, educational, and community collaboration at its very finest,” said President Jackson. “I commend Governor Pataki for this initiative, and I believe this center will bring international import and vital economic significance to the region, and to New York state. Rensselaer is proud to be a partner in this collaborative effort.”

Rensselaer is building on an established history of expertise in the areas of freshwater research and discovery. The Darrin Fresh Water Institute has done seminal research on the effects of acid rain and exotic species on lakes in the Adirondacks. Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, director and Rensselaer professor of biology, has been a principal collaborator on the Hudson River project.

“The Upper Hudson Satellite Center will extend the reach of the Rivers & Estuaries Center programs to support study of the unique issues associated with the Upper Hudson and watershed,” said Nierzwicki-Bauer. “The Upper Hudson, in particular, is critical to our understanding of the river, since it is the location of the headwaters, contains the major tributaries into the Hudson, and is at the head of the estuary for the river in Troy.”

In the past year, Rensselaer and Columbia have developed and begun to utilize advanced monitoring and sensing techniques on the Hudson River with support from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation.

Continuous, real-time monitoring of the river using remote sensing, robotics, and simulation, for example, will allow researchers to define the ever-changing river environments and the effects of human activity upon them.


Originally published in Rensselaer Magazine, Fall 2003

Published September 1, 2003