On Wednesday April 15 at 10 AM MST, WestFAST will hold its first webinar of 2026. The webinar will feature Department of Energy’s (DOE) WestFAST representative, Charles Scaife (WSW #2619), who will present on recent DOE research on the water-energy nexus in the context of rapid data center growth. Drawing on ongoing analysis and national laboratory efforts, Scaife will discuss how energy and water demands are increasingly constraining infrastructure development, the tradeoffs associated with different cooling technologies, and emerging approaches to support coordinated, basin-scale planning and resource management. Charles is an energy–water systems research manager and hydrologist serving as a Program Manager at DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. He leads the Energy–Water Resources Program, which advances research, tools, and partnerships to strengthen the reliability, resilience, and coordination of energy and water systems across the United States. The Energy–Water Resources Program focuses on emerging challenges at the energy water nexus, including growing demands from data centers, regional water constraints on energy infrastructure, and the need for integrated planning across power, water, and industrial systems. Through this work, he manages a multi-milliondollar federal research portfolio and collaborates with national laboratories, utilities, state agencies, and international partners to translate technical analysis into actionable strategies for infrastructure planning and resource management. This is a public webinar and no registration is required.