This public forum will bring together art and science. The major focus of the forum is to present new information and thinking about Water from the perspectives of science, technology, ecology, economics, and ethics. The forum is designed to address the state of Water in the world and new ways of understanding Water. Its purpose is to provoke new ways of thinking about Water and what Water itself needs to perform its life-giving functions on earth.

The forum is being planned with the Center for the Study of Society and the Environment, FotoFest, the Environmental and Engineering Systems Institute, and the Shell Center for Sustainability at Rice University. The conference brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on Water with participation by resource economists, hydrologists, bio-engineers, ethicists and philosophers, legal experts, architects, and artists.

Thursday evening, April 1: Opening presentation at the Menil Collection - Designing for the Future, William McDonough, internationally renowned designer awarded the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development by President Clinton and founder of acclaimed urban design firm William McDonough + Partners

Friday, April 2: The State of Water in the World

• Sandra Postel (Director of Global Water Policy Project and Pew Foundation Fellow in Conservation and the Environment) - State of Water in the World
• David Auerbach (Prof. of Fluid Dynamics, University of Graz, Austria, and leader of European Water Group) - The Hydrological Cycle
• Ambassador E. Djerejian (Director, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University) - Water and International Conflict, the Middle East
• David Nicolas Lamothe (International Water Office, Paris, France)- New Perspectives for the Use of Economics in Water Manageme
• Rob Dunbar (Dept. of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University) - Global Climate Change and Water
• Robert Jackson (Dept. of Biology and Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University) - How Climate Change Will Affect Water
• Soroosh Sorooshian (School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine) - Technology for addressing global-change water issues
• Mary Kelly (Senior Attorney and Program Director for U.S./Mexico Border Initiatives, Environmental Defense, Austin, TX) - Texas Water and the Border
• James Blackburn (Environmental Attorney, Blackburn & Carter, PC) - Water and Houston
• Mark Rose (Texas water expert) - Texas 'Water Wars' and Overview of Water Management in Texas

• Maude Barlow (co-author of Blue Gold and Volunteer Chairperson, The Council of Canadians) - Global Water - A New Politics
• Carla Valentine-Pryne (Episcopal Minister and Founder, Earth Ministry, Seattle, WA) - Approaching a New Ethics
• Jerome Delli Priscoli (Senior Advisor, U.S. Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources) - Global Overview of Water Policy-making
• Herbert Dreiseitl (Director, Atelier Dreiseitl, Germany) - Designing Cities for Water
• Mark Wiesner (Director, EESI, and Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Rice University) - Technology, A Look at the Future
• Joe Hughes (Professor, Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech) - Environmental Bio-Technology and Micro-organisms
• Maureen Stapleton (San Diego County Water Authority) - Conservation and Innovative Alternatives
• Jim Lester (Director, Sustainability Program, Houston Advanced Research Center)

FotoFest 2004 is dedicating its tenth International Biennial to Water. It is presenting international photography and multi-media exhibitions on Water and a Film and Video series on Water. On March 4 - 7, 2004, Rice University Media Center is opening with renowned French film-maker Jean Vigo's two classical films related to Water. The Rice University Media Center is collaborating with FotoFest on an inaugural presentation of Spanish photographer Alvaro Leiva's work, River People, on the Ganges, Niger, Amazon, and Mississippi Rivers. For other programs during FotoFest, March 12 - April 12, 2004, see www.fotofest.org.

The Center for the Study of Environment and Society (CSES) seeks to promote a deeper and broader understanding of environmental issues at Rice University and to enhance the sustainability of the Rice campus. CSES oversees the Environmental Studies Program, as well as courses and curricula on environmental topics in the schools of Engineering, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities. To encourage interdisciplinary discussion on the environment outside of the classroom, CSES hosts periodic lectures and coordinates a weekly reading group that discusses contemporary environmental writings. CSES maintains a website, Enviro-web (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~cses), through which one can access information on all of the University's environmental courses, programs, and initiatives, as well as links to environmental resources beyond Rice.