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Kenneth K. Tanji Land and Water Resources Recipient 1994-1995 Since receiving this award in 1995 and retirement in 1998, Professor Emeritus Tanji continues to provide public service in water quality aspects of irrigation and drainage in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Along with other university colleagues, he has sought consensus on the utility of evaporation basins as one means of disposal of saline irrigation drainage waters and how to operate them safely to protect migratory waterbirds on the Pacific Flyway. Professor Tanji’s extensive experiences on management of agricultural drainage waters in semiarid zones are sought internationally, including a Technical Report on this topic for United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization for worldwide distribution in the fall of 2002. In addition to recognition by UC Davis, he is a recipient of Outstanding Service Award in 1990 from the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Irrigation and Drainage Division, and currently serves as a Technical Consultant to the Ministerial Conference on Water for Food and Agriculture in the Third World Water Forum to be held in Kyoto in March 2003. He will soon participate in his fourth committee for the National Research Council dealing with water withdrawals and in-stream salmon environment of the Columbia River System for the US Department of Interior. His past NRC committee involvement included evaluation of the nation’s soil and water quality for the US Department of Agriculture, planning and remediation of irrigation-induced water quality problems in the West for the Department of Interior, and opportunities to improve US Geological Survey’s national assessment of water quality program. Public service has been an important component in Professor Emeritus Tanji’s career over the past 45 years. He finds participation in public service to be personally rewarding, academically stimulating, and a great learning experience. Public service has provided focus to his research program, contributed to his teaching program, and resulted in greater awareness of societal problems and issues in regard to agricultural water management and water quality. |
