Jeremy Schmidt receives his Talent Award. (photo by Martin Lipman)
Carleton University’s Jeremy Schmidt, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, has been awarded the 2015 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Talent Award for his work on water management, ethics and governance of natural resources.
Schmidt’s award, worth $50,000, was announced at an awards ceremony at the National Arts Centre on Nov. 16, 2015. Schmidt is a new faculty member at Carleton having recently come from Dalhousie University.
The Talent Award recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual who maintains academic excellence, has a talent for research and knowledge mobilization and has demonstrated clear potential to be a future leader.
Research Highlights:
- Focus is on Alberta in light of the American influence on water management and the global political economy of water, particularly its linkages to energy and climate.
- Links legislative changes to environmental assessment and freshwater protection laws in the 2012 omnibus budget bills to legislation now in development to create options for privatizing lands reserved for First Nations.
Quotes:
We all value water greatly, but we don’t have a good understanding of where our ideas about water come from. My research is interested in understanding how our ideas about water shape what we think are the concrete policy and institutional options for governing it. –Schmidt
Part of the funding is allotted for public outreach and awareness, so I will be designing and holding public workshops. The funding will also allow me to continue with data collecting and research and it will ensure that my publications are open and available to all Canadians. — Schmidt
My research focuses on certain technologies that blur the distinction between land and water law. For example, intensive mining operations that super-heated steam to liquefy materials such as bitumen in Northern Alberta before it is pumped out. In that case, water is being injected into land and literally muddying things. Our current regulatory framework wasn’t designed to address these issues, because these technologies were not around when they were drafted. – Schmidt
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