Biography

Gerald McAdams Kauffman is Director of the University of Delaware Water Resources Center (UDWRC), one of the 54 National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) supported by the U.S. Geological Survey at 54 land grant universities in the fifty states, D.C., and three island territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.  The UDWRC is a research center together along with the Institute for Public Administration in the Biden School of Public Policy & Administration. Dr. McAdams Kauffman holds a faculty appointment as Associate Professor in the Biden School of Public Policy & Administration with joint appointments in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, and Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in watershed science and policy, hydrology, and hydraulics. Dr. McAdams Kauffman is Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Water Science & Policy in the Graduate College and served on the Environmental Academic Affairs Council that oversaw undergraduate environmental science/studies majors at the University of Delaware. Since 2020, Gerald has served as President of the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) an association since 1964 of the eighty water resources degree granting institutions of higher learning in North America and President of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) which was incorporated in 1980 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Dr. McAdams Kauffman provides water science and policy assistance to governments in Delaware and the Delaware Valley through the land-grant public service, education, and research role of the University of Delaware. Dr. Kauffman serves as Delaware's first Water Master appointed by the Delaware Water Supply Coordinating Council Act and co-chairs the Christina Basin Clean Water Partnership, an interstate effort between the EPA, Delaware River Basin Commission, Delaware, and Pennsylvania to restore the watershed that provides 60 percent of the First State's drinking water supply.

Degrees

Ph.D., Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware (2014)

MPA, Water Policy, University of Delaware (2003)

Certified Public Manager Program (Level III), Graduate Program in Public Administration, Rutgers University (1988)

B.S., Civil and Environmental Engineering with a concentration in Water Resources, Rutgers University

Experience

2003 – Present Director, Delaware Water Resources Center, University of Delaware

2021 – Present Associate Professor, University of Delaware

2014 – 2021 Assistant Professor, University of Delaware​

​1997 – 2015 Director, Water Resources Agency, Institute for Public Administration, University of Delaware        

1993 – 1997 Water Resources Agency for New Castle County (Newark, Del.)            

1989 – 1993 Donohue and Associates, Consultants (Chicago, Ill.)

1983 – 1989 New Jersey Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection (Trenton, N.J.)

Affiliations

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

American Water Resources Association (AWRA)

Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)

Courses Taught

WSAP 667 Seminar in Water Science & Policy

UAPP 225 Crafting Public Policy

UAPP 420 624 Water Resources Management

UAPP 411/611 Regional Watershed Management

UAPP 467/667 Environmental Resources and Public Policy

LEAD 201 Introduction to Consumer Policy

CIEG 440 Water Resources Engineering

CIEG 443/643 Watershed Engineering, Planning, and Design

CIEG 467/6667 Stream Hydropower

GEOG 432/632 Environmental Hydrology

Appointments

Associate Professor, Biden School of Public Policy & Administration. 2021-present.

Director, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Water Science & Policy. 2025-present.

President, National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR), 2023-2025.

President, Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR), 2022-2024.

Director, University of Delaware Water Resources Center, one of the 54 National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) supported by the U.S. Geological Survey at land grant universities in the fifty states, District of Columbia, and three island territories. 2015 – present.

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). 2010 – present.

University of Delaware, Undergraduate Environmental Academic Affairs Council. 2009 – present.

Co-chair, UDWATER Project. 2008 – present.

State Water Coordinator (Water Master), appointed by the Governor and General Assembly under the Delaware Water Supply Coordinating Council Act. 2000 – present.

Co-chair, Christina Basin Clean Water Partnership, a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Delaware River Basin Commission, State of Delaware, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1995 – present.

Resource Protection Area Technical Advisory Committee (RPATAC), appointed by the New Castle County Executive, by authority of the New Castle County Unified Development Code. 1996 – present.

Faculty Advisor, University of Delaware, Student Section of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA). 2007 – present.

Research Interests

Water Science and Policy; River Basin Governance, Economics, and Policy; Hydrology and Hydraulics, Environmental Policy.