Research Staff Profile: Marie-Françoise Walk

Helping Researchers and the Public Understand and Protect Our Water Resources

The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), within UMass Amherst’s Environmental Institute, supports water resources research through grant-making to faculty, transferring information to the public, and training students in the field. “My job, like the mission of the WRRC itself, is as much about outreach as research,” observes Center Associate Director Marie-Françoise Walk. “In addition to helping campus researchers connect to their peers and to relevant funding sources, we help the public connect to the results of our research.”

For the past 21 years, Walk has been an active and integral part of that mission, beginning as the Principal Investigator on the WRRC’s Acid Rain Monitoring Project (a position she still holds) and today as the Associate Director. In this capacity, Françoise has many responsibilities, including administering the Center’s annual USGS grant, running its annual April conference, managing its website, and providing training and monitoring for volunteers and community groups around the Commonwealth. She also helps The Environmental Institute with its partnerships around campus; for example, she is working with faculty from departments such as Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences to hold a new conference next June highlighting the environmental implications and applications of emerging nanotechnology manufacturing.

Françoise is particularly proud of the WRRC’s many successful conferences and its broad-reaching training for educators and volunteers. “We’re teaching them important tools to better understand our region’s water resources,” she notes, “and at the same time educating on the importance of protecting these environments.”

Françoise has also been instrumental in the re-opening of the campus’s Environmental Analysis Lab, which WRRC administers in collaboration with Julian Tyson, Professor of Chemistry. “The Lab’s mission is to support water-related research and to serve as an affordable, high-quality alternative to off-campus services,” she points out. Since 1983, the Lab has provided services to countless academic researchers, state programs, and citizen volunteers. Its quality control, in particular, ranks among the field’s best; the facility also provides a lower detection limit for phosphorous analysis than most commercial labs. “We can go to around 2 parts per billion while most other facilities can only reach 50 parts per billion,” Françoise points out. “That’s a critical difference in water quality monitoring.”

As an undergraduate, Françoise was attracted to forestry studies out of her concern for the environment. During her graduate studies at Penn State she focused on forest hydrology and upon receiving her degree was hired at the Penn State WRRC to work on its acid rain research program. When she later joined the UMass Amherst WRRC’s four year-old acid rain monitoring program in 1987, it was a natural fit.

Not surprisingly, Françoise spends most of her free time outdoors. When not gardening, she is often out hiking, biking, and kayaking in many of the same waterways she has helped protect. In addition, for many years she has brought her professional expertise to work as a volunteer in local communities, serving as the President of the Deerfield River Watershed Association and advising other local groups on how to study and protect our area’s precious water resources.




Research Staff Profile: Marie-Françoise Walk Helping Researchers and the Public Understand and Protect Our Water Resources The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), within UMass Amherst’s Environmental Institute, supports water resources research through grant-making to faculty, transferring information to the public, and training students in the field. “My job, like the mission of the WRRC itself, is as much about outreach as research,” observes Center Associate Director Marie-Françoise Walk. “In addition to helping campus researchers connect to their peers and to relevant funding sources, we help the public connect to the results of our research.” For the past 21 years, Walk has been an active and integral part of that mission, beginning as the Principal Investigator on the WRRC’s Acid Rain Monitoring Project (a position she still holds) and today as the Associate Director. In this capacity, Françoise has many responsibilities, including administering the Center’s annual USGS grant, running its annual April conference, managing its website, and providing training and monitoring for volunteers and community groups around the Commonwealth. She also helps The Environmental Institute with its partnerships around campus; for example, she is working with faculty from departments such as Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences to hold a new conference next June highlighting the environmental implications and applications of emerging nanotechnology manufacturing. Françoise is particularly proud of the WRRC’s many successful conferences and its broad-reaching training for educators and volunteers. “We’re teaching them important tools to better understand our region’s water resources,” she notes, “and at the same time educating on the importance of protecting these environments.” Françoise has also been instrumental in the re-opening of the campus’s Environmental Analysis Lab, which WRRC administers in collaboration with Julian Tyson, Professor of Chemistry. “The Lab’s mission is to support water-related research and to serve as an affordable, high-quality alternative to off-campus services,” she points out. Since 1983, the Lab has provided services to countless academic researchers, state programs, and citizen volunteers. Its quality control, in particular, ranks among the field’s best; the facility also provides a lower detection limit for phosphorous analysis than most commercial labs. “We can go to around 2 parts per billion while most other facilities can only reach 50 parts per billion,” Françoise points out. “That’s a critical difference in water quality monitoring.” As an undergraduate, Françoise was attracted to forestry studies out of her concern for the environment. During her graduate studies at Penn State she focused on forest hydrology and upon receiving her degree was hired at the Penn State WRRC to work on its acid rain research program. When she later joined the UMass Amherst WRRC’s four year-old acid rain monitoring program in 1987, it was a natural fit. Not surprisingly, Françoise spends most of her free time outdoors. When not gardening, she is often out hiking, biking, and kayaking in many of the same waterways she has helped protect. In addition, for many years she has brought her professional expertise to work as a volunteer in local communities, serving as the President of the Deerfield River Watershed Association and advising other local groups on how to study and protect our area’s precious water resources.


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