Florida Water & Climate Alliance Webinar
Rising Stars in Water and Climate
Friday, October 31, 2025, 11:00am – Noon
The Florida Water and Climate Alliance (FloridaWCA) was excited to host this special 1-hour webinar highlighting the next generation of leaders in water and climate science. Over 55 attendees representing academia, utilities, government agencies, water management districts, local government, and private consulting joined the event which brought together a dynamic lineup of emerging voices—including graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and early-career professionals —who are shaping the future of water and climate resilience.
Through a series of engaging lightning talks, presenters shared innovative research, applied science, and new tools that address the complex intersection of water resources and climate change. The wide-ranging topics reflected the diversity and urgency of challenges facing Florida’s water sector and include initiatives in water and resiliency metrics, integrating remote sensing and in-situ data for flooding events, new tools to project precipitation extremes, lessons learned from global models in the Nile Basin, and advances in paleoclimatology!
Featured Presenters with Links to Presentation Slides (if available):
- Vasu Misra, Professor, COAPS, Florida State University – FloridaWCA Overview and Updates
- Stephanya Salazar, Resiliency Project Manager – Metrics, South Florida Water Management District – Water and Resilience Metrics Initiative at the SFWMD
- Azizbek Nuriddinov, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida State University – Integrating Remote Sensing and In-situ Data to Improve Understanding of Flood Events in the U.S.
- Jayasankar C B, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Florida State University – Future Projections of Precipitation Extremes over Florida: Insights from Downscaled CMIP6 CESM2
- Mekdelawit Messay Deribe, Water Science Researcher, Florida International University – Global Models, Local Realities: Cautionary Lessons on Why Region-Specific Insights Matter — Evidence from the Nile Basin.
- Oana Dumitru, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Geological Sciences, University of Florida – Fossil Corals: A Key Archive for Reconstructing Past Sea-Level Changes
Facilitated by Darlene Velez, Research Coordinator, UF Water Institute & FloridaWCA Coordinator
