The Oregon Water Science Center receives Portland State University’s 2026 Public Impact Partner Award
Photo of USGS-Portland State Partnership Water Workforce Workshop
Learn more about the award and the UPP!
The Oregon Water Science Center (ORWSC) received Portland State University’s (PSU) 2026 Public Impact Partner Award. This award recognizes external partners whose collaboration with PSU has generated outstanding public impact through research, education, and community engagement. The award recognizes the nearly two decades of close collaboration in the USGS-PSU Partnership (UPP).
Formally established in 2007, and sustained by successive five-year Cooperative Research Agreements, the UPP enables collaborative research on water supply, water quality, hydrologic hazards, and hydro-biological resources that are critical to residents of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Over the years, the ORWSC has uplifted and been a resource for hundreds of students during events, career fairs, workshops, and by providing paid internships and tuition remissions.
The partnership is coordinated by PSU’s Institute for Natural Resources, with Alison Hopcroft as Partnership Manager. Hopcroft has supported the partnership since 2019, and her knowledgeable, calm, and stable leadership are greatly appreciated by the ORWSC.
Hopcroft said “It was a pleasure to see the USGS Oregon Water Science Center recognized for its long-term collaboration with PSU and celebrate this award together. I’m grateful to Joanna Thamke, Alex Etheridge, and all our ORWSC colleagues for their ongoing commitment to the partnership. We look forward to continuing our work together and generating even more public impact.”
The partnership by the numbers:
- Supported more than 40 students with paid research, internship, and training opportunities since recordkeeping began in 2019.
- Provided more than 460 credit hours of graduate coursework through tuition remissions.
- Awarded 9 seed grants totaling more than \$400,000
- Launched numerous faculty projects that have gone on to attract more than $1 million in external funding.
The nominating committee praised the partnership’s impact on student development, noting that more than 25 percent of ORWSC employees are PSU alumni - a testament to the partnership’s central role in developing the next generation of water scientists.
The ORWSC UPP Team and affiliated staff accepted the engraved glass trophy at PSU’s Research Awards Ceremony on Friday May 8, 2026. It was a tremendous honor for the ORWSC to receive the second annual Public Impact Award at PSU’s 6th annual Research Awards Ceremony. ORWSC was the only non-PSU recipient recognized among an impressive list of PSU's top researchers.
“Our collaboration with PSU's leadership team of the UPP has been immensely rewarding. Together, we celebrate this achievement and will continue supporting the next generation of researchers and advancing science for Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.” -Joanna Thamke, ORWSC Director.
If you’d like to be on the invite list for UPP events, please let us know!
