Profile: Desert Research Institute

Welcome to the Desert Research Institute, where we are striving to serve as a world leader in environmental sciences through the application of knowledge and technologies to improve people’s lives throughout Nevada and the world.

DRI was established by the Nevada Legislature in 1959 and became a stand alone institution within the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) in 1969. Today there are nearly 500 researchers, staff and students working on approximately 300 research projects per year that takes place in every state in the nation and on every continent in the world.

DRI’s exciting research ranges from watershed issues at Nevada’s major lakes to the preservation of China’s national treasures, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses to assisting the Army with desert terrain issues in the Middle East. We are currently constructing the first six-sided computer visualization laboratory west of Iowa.

From 1999 until 2006, DRI leveraged a total of $60 million of state support to bring $227 million of research funding to Nevada. The institute has grown 85 percent since 1999 while using only 1 percent of NSHE’s annual budget.

The institute’s two main campuses are in Reno and Las Vegas. There are satellite research facilities in Boulder City, Nev., and Steamboat Springs, Colo.

DRI has research divisions in Hydrologic Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences in addition to Earth and Ecosystem Sciences. The Interdisciplinary Science Centers include Watersheds & Environmental Sustainability; Arid Lands Environmental Management; Environmental Remediation and Monitoring; and Advanced Visualization, Computation and Modeling.