Tatsuaki Nakato, first LACMRERS director

LACMRERS was a dream of its founding director, Tatsuaki Nakato, and IIHR’s former director, V.C. Patel. They obtained a generous grant of $1.2 million from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, which represented the bulk of the building costs. LACMRERS opened in 2002.

In 2008, a second major contribution from the Carver Trust brought its support of LACMRERS to a total of more than $2 million, allowing IIHR to equip the laboratory with a multi-beam echo sounder, state-of-the art water quality sensors and dataloggers, sediment laboratory equipment, and other equipment for large-river research. Grants and contracts fund specific research projects utilizing LACMRERS equipment and facilities.