POTSDAM -- A professor who teaches in Potsdam has been re-appointed as a member of the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board’s Research Coordination Committee of the International Joint Commission (IJC).

Michael Twiss was named to a three-year term. He teaches biology at Clarkson University.

The IJC was founded in 1909 with the signing of the Boundary Waters Treaty by Canada and the United States. The treaty provides general principles, rather than detailed prescriptions, for preventing and resolving disputes over waters shared between the two countries and for settling other transboundary issues.

The Great Lakes Advisory Board has two principle functions: establishing scientific priorities and research coordination. Members of the advisory board represent federal, tribal, state and provincial agencies, NGOs and academic institutions. Much of the work done by the IJC involves evaluating ongoing efforts by Canada and the U.S. to adhere to the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The Great Lakes Advisory Board provides impartial advice on new issues that are likely to impact water quality in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system.

Twiss is currently co-chairing an IJC working group focused on the need for a Great Lakes early warning system.

"The early warning system will be a scientifically-based framework for detecting and identifying emerging stressors and threats will be developed and tested using available data," Twiss said. "The framework will be used at regular intervals in the future to ensure emerging stressors and threats remain current. Hopefully, we will be able to avoid future problems or have the time to foresee adverse changes and properly manage any impacts -- this is timely given current fiscal constraints and large scale changes occurring in the environment."