About 20 minutes on the outskirts of town, the Center for Water and Wetland Resources lies on 740 acres of land. The buildings were empty. Nothing stirred, similar to the calm land. It was quiet, until Dr. Ray Highsmith, the director came out of his office.
There are 8 people in Dr. Highsmith’s building and 15 people total. Currently, they are looking for an established professor with around 5 graduate students to add to the team. As we got more into the conversation it became evident that his goal is to expand. He hopes to add more people in the future. “My goal is to teach classes out here. It is hard to do because it is so far. We are trying to build it up, get more activity. That is our biggest challenge,” he explained.
The land dates back to the 1940s. It was a bait farm that stretched 160 acres. They took spring water and made it into ponds. Little by little the land started expanding. Around the year 2000, they acquired money to construct buildings. Now the center is used for many field trips for students and faculty members.
The Foundation was given money to start fresh water research. It also just received a 20 million dollar grant to work in the Gulf of Mexico for 3 years.
Some of the research scientists are from Brazil, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. They have international agreements with China and Brazil to do natural products.
Dr. Ray Highsmith went to University of Iowa for his undergraduate degree. “I had a professor take an interest in me, he took me to the Marshall Islands to come along and do some research. Well in the end it actually changed my life.” After that he knew what he wanted to do. He got a faculty job at a university in Alaska that led him to Oxford in 2005.
As the interview dwindled down, he exclaimed that if time permitted, he would love to show me the center. The center stretched on with lush green pastures full of geese flying above, and deer running among the couple of hundred ponds used for testing. “The deer aren’t a threat here. It is a safe haven for them from hunters. We research animals and how they interact in the natural habitat,” explained Highsmith. He pointed out the wild turkey research building that research mating preferences and natural behavior.
The center has an employee from Brazil who looks for small crops in Mississippi that farmers can use as products such as medicine or foods. She found a food that does not have sugar that humans can digest. “She cooked a lunch for all of us not too long ago. The food kind of looks like a potato, it was actually really good! You can eat as much as you want, but you won’t gain weight!”
One of the most important buildings that sat high on a hill, housed the piece of equipment which has been to New York, and is going on a cruise in March to the Gulf of Mexico (see picture). It cost over a million dollars, with the insurance costing 2 million. It can go over a mile deep in the ocean. It researches the seafloor, marine life, and the water.
The amazing thing about the Center is that most students have never heard of it much less the amazing accomplishments it has. It shares the same Ole Miss logo as the football players' jerseys, yet many do not know what it is. The Center has some great accomplishments to be proud of. With the grants it just received and the goals to expand, the Ole Miss community will soon be hearing a great deal about the Center making new discoveries for generations to come.
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