Dr. Jeffrey Peterson
Director, University of Minnesota Water Resources Center
Professor, Department of Applied Economics
Jeffrey M. Peterson is the Director of the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center, a partnership of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences and University of Minnesota Extension. As Director, he provides overall leadership for the center’s outreach, teaching, and research activities involving faculty and students across the university. He also holds a faculty appointment as a professor in the Department of Applied Economics. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in agricultural and resource economics. Prior to coming to Minnesota he held a faculty position in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University for 15 years, where he was Director of Graduate Studies from 2014 to 2015. He is the recipient of national awards for his research on environmental policy analysis, focusing on water use and water quality impacts from agriculture.
UCOWR Past-President Jerry Kauffman, University of Delaware, and current UCOWR President Jeff Peterson, University of Minnesota.
Jeff’s term as UCOWR President officially began in June 2024, but was not celebrated until this fall at the AWRA/UCOWR/NIWR 60th Anniversary Water Resources Conference, September 30 – October 2, 2024. He has been working very hard for UCOWR already, as Workshop Chairperson on the 2024 conference planning committee and as the Chair of the 2025 conference planning committee. The UCOWR home office staff are very excited to work with him on this 2025 University of Minnesota based conference, as it was originally planned for 2020 before the pandemic brought everything to a halt. The campus of University of Minnesota, the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and the water resources of the region hold much promise for an enriching conference experience. Many thanks to Dr. Peterson for his continuing leadership during this especially busy UCOWR year!
