A Catalyst to Promote Healthy Water Sources

Every living being relies on water. 

For many communities, life-giving sources of water spring from nearby rivers and lakes. There, you’ll often find Thad Scott. While he navigates the surface, Scott inspects what transpires below and around the waterline—and uncovers clues about the cyclical interactions between humans and nature that impact water quality. His research serves as a catalyst to promote robust ecosystems that provide clean water to support human health.

As a Baylor limnologist, Scott’s research often informs policymakers and leaders with the information they need to improve or preserve water resources. From his Baylor laboratory or in the field, Scott and his team examine the interactions between water chemistry and microbiology, finding understanding of how these interactions can impact humans. His work often takes place on the forefront of discovery, yielding new insights about lake ecosystems, while at other times is focused specifically on bodies of water known to be taxed by pollution or climate change. Those insights help identify solutions to water quality problems and often lead to recommendations to state or federal agencies that regulate public water systems.

“Here in Texas, as in many other places globally, our lakes are increasingly stressed by the unintended consequences of societal choices,” Scott says. “Extreme variation between floods and droughts, the growing pressure from rapid population growth, and the aging infrastructure of our man-made lakes requires a new approach to water resource management. That’s what drives us—to develop the science that helps us make critical decisions about effective and efficient use of our natural resources.”

It's research for life—not only our neighbors in the here and now, but future generations whose access to water will be shaped by how well we preserve, protect and enhance vulnerable resources today.