by Deborah Silliman Wolfe/College of Engineering
Meet Chad Furl. This Ph.D. candidate under Dr. Hatim Sharif, associate professor in the College of Engineering’s Civil Engineering (CE) Department, recently delivered a seminar to the staff of the Laboratoire d’Etude des Transferts en Hydrologie et Environnement (LTHE) in Grenoble, France. In addition to his work at LTHE, Furl, a surface water hydrologist who works on flow and erosion simulations of extreme events, attended the Water and Society 2014 conference in Oleron, France.
“The aim of the conference was to bring together social and physical scientists working on water issues and explore the intersection of both sides work,” said Furl. “Most of the attendees were from western Europe with others from the US, Africa, and Eastern Europe. I enjoyed working in a smaller environment; there was plenty of time for interaction with course teachers and overall I’d say I learned a lot.”
Furl’s travel was primarily funded through Valero Research Excellence Funds and the Valero International Travel Award.
“Traveling to an international meeting was something I had hoped to do even before starting UTSA,” said Furl. “I’ve always enjoyed international travel, but have never had the opportunity to do so for work purposes. This trip to France was ideal because the setting was small enough each of the students were able to learn a little about each other.”
Furl said that working with others from diverse backgrounds and seeing how and why they make decisions was interesting to him, and that aspect is something he had always enjoyed about the diversity of academia/STEM fields.
“The whole experience was wonderful,” said Furl. “I hope work related opportunities like this present themselves in the future. Working in an international setting was exciting and eye opening.”