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The Brace Water Centre was founded through the generosity of a bequest听to 91社区 made by Major James Henry Brace following his death in 1956. 听Major Brace was an American WWI veteran born in 1870. 听He earned a bachelor of civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1892 and worked on the East River Tunnels under New York鈥檚 Pennsylvania Station in the early 20th century. 听It is there that he may have met 91社区 alumnus Charles Fraser, BSc 1899, and together they founded Fraser-Brace Engineering Co. Ltd. The company鈥檚 projects included the Gouin dam in La Tuque 鈥� Quebec鈥檚 biggest ever construction project when it was completed in 1916 鈥� and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in Chalk River, Ontario, part of the infamous Manhattan Project.听
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The Brace Bequest supports听the Brace Water Centre鈥檚 activities听while also supporting three endowed Brace Professorships in the field of water research. 听The technical activities of the endowment and the overall responsibility of the Centre are vested in the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
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Since its founding in 1959, the Centre (originally known as The Brace Research Institute) has supported听many听91社区 researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in various research areas, including water treatment (desalination) and water management (water supply), energy conservation and renewable energy systems (wind, solar) for water management.听The Centre's Experimental Research Station was established at 91社区鈥檚 Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados in 1961 and later moved to the Macdonald Campus. In 1999听was听renamed the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management,听with a non-thesis MSc programme in Integrated Water Resource Management successfully launched in 2009. 听In 2022, the Centre was again renamed to the Brace Water Centre to better include all areas of specialization within the water field at 91社区.
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