McCornick to Leave Role as the Nicholas Institute’s Water Program Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, August 2, 2011

CONTACT: Erin McKenzie
(919) 613-3652
erin.mckenzie@duke.edu

DURHAM, N.C. – Peter McCornick, founding director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions’ water program, will step down Aug. 31 to assume a new post with the International Water Management Institute.

There, he will serve as principal researcher and director for Asia at their headquarters in Sri Lanka while continuing work with the Nicholas Institute as a senior fellow.

“Peter’s work with the Nicholas Institute’s water program will bring benefits to Duke for years to come,” said Nicholas Institute Director Tim Profeta. “For the first time, under Peter, the Nicholas Institute reached decision makers past the boundaries of the United States with cutting-edge work framed to the issues facing governments across Asia and Africa. Peter helped us appraise how we might best use Duke’s resources to aid decision makers in developing countries. And now, by taking on a new role as a senior fellow, he will give us a collaborator with whom we can further amplify that work.”

McCornick helped establish the water program in 2008. Under his leadership, it was taken outside U.S. borders into areas such as the Mekong, the Ganges and the Blue Nile where critical attention to water management, adaptation, water security and access to safe water and sanitation are needed. In the U.S., expertise on water and sanitation was expanded—helping the Nicholas Institute become a central convener of Washington’s conversation about how U.S. entities can best address the critical challenge of expanding access to millions. And at Duke, McCornick established a water working group bringing together faculty and Institute staff from across the University to collaborate and discuss new ways to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the sector.

While a global search is launched for his successor, projects will be managed by a team of faculty and Institute staff. As senior fellow, however, McCornick will continue partnering with the Nicholas Institute on existing and future projects in Asia and beyond.

“I look forward to continuing my work in international development closer to where the issues are happening,” said McCornick, “and I am excited to get the chance to do so while maintaining my ties with the Nicholas Institute.”

McCornick has spent his career focused on water challenges in the developing world. He has worked extensively in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America—mostly in senior leadership roles alongside decision makers in international, national and sub-national institutions in the public and private sector. 

His work has been widely published in several scholarly journals, including Water Policy, Water Resources Management and Agricultural Water Management.

He holds both doctoral and master’s degrees in water resources and irrigation engineering from Colorado State University as well as a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K.
 

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