Darrin Freshwater Institute

The Darrin Freshwater Institute represents one of the region’s preeminent field stations. Situated right on the shore of beautiful Lake George, our facilities support innovative research, priceless long-term monitoring, and a beautiful location to convene researchers, students and classes, and outside organizations. Researchers at the Darrin Freshwater Institute work on a very wide range of topics related to environmental issues and applications. This work ranges from foundational advances in science and engineering—with a goal of better understanding the natural world—to very practical applications to help solve real-world challenges. The Darrin Freshwater Institute takes a holistic and integrated approach by involving researchers from across the entire Rensselaer campus, including departments in Biological Sciences, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Computer Science, Science & Technology Studies, Cognitive Science, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, the Arts, and the School of Architecture. We also welcome outside field station users and are set up to support a wide variety of projects and initiatives.  This collaborative and inclusive approach makes the research conducted here transformative, impactful, and relevant. It also allows our researchers to attract a diversity of funding sources, including government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry. We welcome you to visit our facilities to learn more!

Year Founded
1967
Year Joined OBFS
2023
Size of Field Station (hectares)
1-100
FSML Web Address
https://dfwi.rpi.edu/

Private nonprofit organization?
Yes
Universities affiliated / Parent Organization
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Federal, state, or local governmental partners?
Other: USGS, Lake George Park Commission, The Nature Conservancy, NYDEC
Member of the Virtual Field
Yes

Additional Information

Private nonprofit organization?
Names of Universities affilated
0
Federal, state, or local governmental partners?
Other
Name of partner
Uppsala University, Sweden; CSCI, Saville, Spain; Utrecht University, Netherlands
Tribal partners/users
No
MSI/HBCU users
No
Community College users
No
Member of the Virtual Field
Yes

Visiting a FS/ML

Open to the Public
Yes
Year round staff
3-5
Seasonal staff
3-5
Overnight housing facilities/# of beds
11-20
Distance to emergency services
0-20 minutes
Library
Yes
Hiking trails
No
Internship employment
Yes

Environmental Information

Biomes
Temperate Forest
Minimum Elevation
0-100 meters
Maximum Elevation
101-300 meters
Köppen climate classification
D (continental)
Freshwater habitats
Yes
Urban or rural
Agricultural fields
No

Research

REU host station
No
Dry lab space
Yes
Wet Lab space
Yes
Research vessels available
Yes
GIS capacity on site
Yes
Long term data sets
Yes
On site herbarium or voucher species
Formal Data Management Plan
Yes
Mesocosms, plots, stream diversions, or other sets ups for outdoor manipulative experiments
Yes
Date Joined OBFS
January 16, 2025