Check out photos from the 2024 Barton Springs University Day!
Executive Director & Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center, Robert Mace, Keynote Speaker for BSU Day 2024!
Robert Mace is the Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University.
Robert has over 30 years of experience in water resources and policy. Before joining Texas State University in 2017, Robert worked at the Texas Water Development Board for 18 years, ending his career there as the Deputy Executive Administrator for the Water Science & Conservation office. While at the Board, Robert worked on understanding groundwater and surface-water resources in Texas; advancing water conservation and innovative water technologies such as desalination, aquifer storage and recovery, reuse, and rainwater harvesting; regional and state water planning; and protecting Texans from floods.
Prior to joining the Texas Water Development Board, Robert worked nine years at the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin as a hydrologist and research scientist. Robert has a B.S. in Geophysics and an M.S. in Hydrology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and a Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from The University of Texas at Austin. He published a book on groundwater sustainability in 2022 and is currently working on a book about water resources and climate change.
See Robert Mace speak at BSU Day, September 17th at 9 am on the South Hill of Barton Springs pool. His presentation “Springs Today. Springs Tomorrow?” covers the tenuous state of water resources and disappearing springs in Central Texas.
About Barton Springs University
Barton Springs University is a year-round series of educational events and classroom presentations, highlighted by a full day of outdoor learning and fun at Barton Springs Pool on September 17th. The Barton Springs University day is designed primarily for high school students but includes college students and the general public. It features lectures, hands on activities, an interactive community fair and training by leading academics, professionals, and policy makers on central Texas water science, public policy, history and sustainable living.
Save Barton Creek Association, City of Austin Parks & Recreation, Watershed Protection, Water Utility and Austin Resource Recovery, University of Texas’, Environmental Science Institute, Texas State University, Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife