Honorary Diplomates – European Academy of Water Resources Engineers & Scientists

Joaquín Andreu is Full Professor of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV). He has been Director of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering of UPV (2012-2016); Technical Director of the Jucar River Basin Agency (CHJ) (2004-2008); first Director of the Institute of IIAMA (2001-2004); and Dean of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering of UPV (1994-1998). His main research interests are Integrated Planning and Management of Water Resources and River Basins, Decision Support Systems for Water Planning and Management, Hydro-economic Water Resources Systems Modelling, Drought risk assessment and management, and Water Conflicts Resolution. He has conducted several research projects (funded by the European Communities Union, the Spanish Ministries of Science and Development and Foreign Affairs, and other European and International Institutions), as well as several advisory and consultancy projects for public and private companies of the water sector, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. Among the EU funded research projects in which he has worked are WARSYP, WAMME, SEDEMED, SEDEMED II, AQUAMONEY, GENESIS, SIRIUS, DROUGHT-R&SPI, SWICCA, ENHANCE, IMPREX, and AGREEMAR. He was awarded a Certificate of Honour as Distinguished member of the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) (2019) “for his outstanding contribution to the field of water resources management”; and the NATIONAL PRIZE for CIVIL ENGINEERING (2023), by the Spanish Government “in recognition of his important and brilliant professional career, related to the world of water”.

Aldo Fiori is Professor of Hydrology and Hydraulic Structures at Roma Tre University, Italy. His main research interests are in subsurface hydrology (e.g. theory of flow and solute transport in heterogeneous porous media, stochastic subsurface hydrology, water flow to wells and inverse problem, anomalous transport in porous media, flow and transport processes in the vadose zone), surface hydrology (flow generation processes, flood modelling, hillslope hydrology), statistical hydrology and design and verification of hydraulic structures. He served the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) for more than 20 years as Vice-President and then President of the Groundwater Committee. Aldo Fiori is currently Editor of the Hydrological Sciences Journal and has served as Associate Editor of several hydrological journals over the past 25 years (e.g. Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology, Hydrogeology Journal, ARC Geophysical Research). He is listed in the World Top 2% Scientist of Stanford University and the Highly Ranked Scholars by ScholarGPS. In 2023 he was awarded the IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize – Dooge Medal.

Luis Garrote holds civil engineering degrees from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Full Professor of Hydraulic Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he leads the Research Group on Hydroinformatics and Water Management. His research focuses on the application of advanced hydrological and hydraulic models to water resources planning and management. This includes critical areas such as flood and drought management, environmental flow assessment, reservoir operation, and hydropower optimization, with a strong emphasis on addressing uncertainties linked to global change. Professor Garrote has an extensive professional background in integrated water resources management, working in collaboration with national and international organizations, as well as private-sector stakeholders. His contributions encompass water resources planning, hydraulic structure design and operation, dam safety and operating rules, and the development of strategies for managing droughts and flood risks.

Prof. Dr. Nilgun B. Harmancioglu was a professor of hydrology and water resources, who carried out teaching and research activities at the Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) between 1976 and 2017 (formerly Aegean University between 1976 and 1982). She received her B.Sc. in civil engineering in 1973, her MSc in water resources engineering in 1976, and her PhD in hydrology and water resources in 1981. She was promoted to full professorship in 1992 at the DEU Faculty of Engineering, Civil Engineering Department.
She carried out her postdoctoral studies first at Ecole National Superieure des Mines de Paris, Centre d’Informatique Geologique, Laboratoire d’Hydrogeologie Mathematique Paris, (1980–1981), and then at George Washington University, School of Engineering and Applied Science, International Water Resources Institute (1984–1986), where she also worked as a research associate.
Prof. Harmancioglu’s basic areas of research mainly include water resources management, simulation of hydrologic processes, information theory as applied to water resources. She has about 350 publications in the relevant areas, 70% of which are in English. She published and edited 4 books published by Springer and has contributed to several international conferences and symposia as a co-director, lecturer, and member of organization committees. She conducted various research projects funded by NATO, IWMI, the British Council, EU Framework Programs, the State Planning Agency, DEU, and TUBITAK (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey). She also acted as a member of the Theme Advisory Board for the UNESCO IHP-VI Program between 2002 and 2007.
She was awarded by EWRA (European Water Resources Association) in 2015 as a distinguished member for her sustained and remarkable contributions to the scientific field of water resource management and for her continuous service to society.

Prof. Harmancioglu was the director of SUMER (DEU Water Resources Management Research & Application Center) between 2001 and 2017 and the founder / scientific director of EA-TEK, International R&D, Engineering, Software and Consultancy Company, located at the DEU Technopark, until she unfortunately passed away in 2020.

Professor George P. Karatzas received his Ph.D in 1992 from the Department of Civil Engineering of Rutgers University, USA in a combined Ph.D program with Princeton University, USA. At the present time he is a Full Professor in the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete, Greece (1998- Today) where he has served in the past as Chairman and Dean of the School. Prior to that position he worked as a postgraduate at the Research Center for Groundwater Remediation Design at the University of Vermont (1992-1994) and as an Research Assistant Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Vermont (1994-1999). His area of research includes numerical simulation in porous media, subsurface hydrology and contaminant transport, groundwater management, subsurface remediation techniques, global optimization techniques, surface water modeling and floods. He is the author of 123 journal publications, 92 conference proceedings, one book and 6 book chapters. He has been coordinator, principal investigator and co-investigator in several national and international research projects related to groundwater flow and contaminant transport, groundwater management, surface hydrology and floods.

Daniel P. Loucks is an emeritus professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. His research and teaching have focused on the development and application of ecology, economics, engineering, and systems analysis methods to the solution of environmental and regional water resources and various public policy problems. He has held positions in other universities, research institutes, and government agencies in the US, Australia, Europe, and North America, and in UN agencies, NATO, and the World Bank. He has participated in water development projects in various countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. He is a recipient of a Senior U.S. Scientist Research Award from the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He served as an aviator in the US Navy for twenty-six years and retired after commanding the Navy’s largest air transport squadron.

Athanasios Loukas is a Professor of Engineering Hydrology – Management and Development of Water Resources, Head of Transportation and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Director of “Hydraulic Works and Environmental Management” Lab, Director of Master Program “Water Resources” of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2018-today). Previously, he was affiliated with University of Thessaly in which he served as a Professor, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering (2008-2012) and Dean of Faculty of Engineering (2015-2018), Laboratory Director and Director of an international Master Program (2010-2018). His research and activity focus on hydrology, hydrological hazards and risks (droughts and floods), climate change impacts, and water resources management, fields in which he has more than 400 scientific referred international journal publications, conference proceedings publications, books and technical reports. He coordinated and participated in numerous national and international research programs. Besides his research activity, he develops a strong outreach activity, and acts as mentor of a high number of post-graduate and Ph.D. students.
He received, during his academic studies and carrier, numerous fellowships, prices and awards such as the Fulbright Research Scholarship in 2013. He is listed in the top world-wide 2% of the most influential scientists (according to his publications and the citations to his publications for his carrier period until 2022) of Stanford University (2023). His is a visiting professor in U.S.A. and European Universities.
He is, currently, Editor-in-Chief of European Water, Section Editor-in-Chief “Water Resources Management Policy and Governance” of Water and Editorial Board Member of Water Resources Management and Scientific Review Engineering and Environmental Sciences. He is regular reviewer of national and European research proposals as well as evaluator and responsible of research projects certification. He is affiliated with national and international scientific organizations such as EWRA and EGU.

Present And Previous Posts
2019- : Emeritus Professor of Water Resources Engineering, School of Engineering, Newcastle University UK.
1984-2019: Professor of Water Resources Engineering, School of Engineering, Newcastle University UK.
Awards
Golden Badge Award, European Geophysical Society, 1995.
Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004.
Distinguished Member of European Water Resources Association, 2017.
Honorary Diplomate of the European Academy of Water Resources Engineers & Scientists (EAWRES) 2023.
International Honorary
Honorary Professor, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI), Nanjing,2014-2019
Honorary/Visiting Professor, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), Beijing, 2009-2012
Appointed De Tao Master, De Tao Academy, Beijing, 2013.
Founding President, Hydrological Sciences Section, European Geophysical Society (now European Geosciences Union), 1991-94.
Editorial Board Member, Water Resources Management Journal.
Associate Editor, Journal of Forecasting.
Editorial Advisory Board Member, Journal of River Basin Management.
Section Editor, Hydrology Journal.

Claudia Pahl-Wostl is full professor for resources management at the Institute of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences and at the interdisciplinary research centre Institute for Environmental Systems Research (USF) at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. Before moving to Osnabrück she worked for more than ten years at the Swiss Federal Institute for Science and Technology, Zürich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG. Claudia Pahl-Wostl is an internationally leading scholar on governance and adaptive and integrated management of water resources and the role of social and societal learning. Her research programme builds on foundations in systems science, which explicitly acknowledge the complex and often unpredictable dynamics of the systems to be managed. Recent research interests include the water-energy-food nexus, social-ecological-network analysis and transformational adaptation to climate change with a focus on droughts and floods. Claudia Pahl-Wostl has participated in and coordinated several European and national projects. Empirical has focused on the transition from current regimes of (water) resources management to more integrated, adaptive approaches with case studies in Europe, South Africa, Central Asia, Canada and Costa Rica.

Roger S. Pulwarty is the Chief Scientist at NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado USA. Dr. Pulwartys’ research and over 120 publications focus on climate, water, disaster risk reduction, and resilience. He has also developed and lead landmark programs integrating science and services, including the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System, and Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in the Caribbean. Roger has served as a convening lead author for national and international assessments such as the IPCC, UNDRR, the International Science Council, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He provides testimonies before the US Congress, and served on White House Task Forces on Water, Climate and Security and acts in an advisory capacity to the Organization of American States, UN Agencies, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Caribbean Economic Community, among others. Roger co-chairs the UN Climate Services Information System, the U.S. White House Sub-committee on Resilience Science and Technology, and SDG6 (WASH) for the U.S. His work on science and decision-making has been awarded internationally and nationally, including by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and most recently, with the 2022 U.S. President’s Distinguished Rank Award. Roger is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. He is the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy Scientific Representative to the World Meteorological Organization. He is Professor Adjunct to the University of Colorado and the University of the West Indies, and is the co-editor of Hurricanes: Climate and Socio-economic Impacts” (Springer, reissued 2012), “Drought and Water Crises” (CRC Press 2017), and “Droughts: from Risk to Resilience” (UN Press, 2021).

Giuseppe Rossi, graduated in Civil Engineering, is emeritus professor of hydrology and hydraulic structures at the University of Catania. He was visiting scientist at the Colorado State University (USA) and at the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (Spain). He was vice president of the International Water Resources Association (2010-2012) and of the Italian Hydrotechnical Association (2012-2015) and chair of the Award Committee of IWRA(2013-2015).
He has a long experience in graduated and postgraduate teaching, and has organized several international conferences on hydrological extremes (floods and droughts) and on water resources systems. He directed many research projects on droughts and water resources systems. He coordinated some Euro-Mediterranean projects, funded by the European Commission, in cooperation with institutions of South Europe, North Africa and near East countries. Author of more than 200 scientific papers, he is also author, editor and co-editor of ten books on hydrology and water resources. The last book “Water Resources of Italy. Protection, Use and Control” edited with M. Benedini (2020) is published by Springer in the Series World Water Resources.
He serves in the editorial Boards of Water Resources Management (Springer) and of L’Acqua (Italian Hydrotechnical Association). He is Fellow member of IWRA, honorary member of Società Idrologica Italiana, vice-president of Accademia Zelanti and Dafnici and member of Accademia Gioenia.

Slobodan P. Simonovic (www.slobodansimonovic.com) is universally acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on application of Systems Analysis to water and environmental management. He advanced the understanding of water and environmental systems, by providing decision-makers with tools to support their sustainable management. He provides unparalleled contributions to global and local management of water that have improved the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. His work has a significant impact on our understanding of system linkages between humans, and build and natural environments that lead to sustainable water resources management and resilience as a new development paradigm.

Professor Vijay P. Singh is a University Distinguished Professor, a Regents Professor, and Caroline and William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his B.S., M.S., Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees in engineering. He is a registered professional engineer, a registered professional hydrologist, and a Board Certified Honorary diplomate of ASCE-AAWRE (American Academy of Water Resources Engineers). He is a member of National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and 12 other international national academies of science/engineering (of Georgia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia, the Czech Republic). He is a Distinguished member of ASCE, a Distinguished Fellow of AGGS, a Distinguished Honorary Member of IWRA, and an Honorary Member of AWRA. He has published extensively in the areas of hydrology, groundwater, water quality, irrigation engineering, hydraulics, and water resources (more than 1555 journal articles; 35 textbooks; 95 edited reference books; 120 book chapters; and 315 conference papers). He has received more than 115 national and international awards, and four honorary doctorates. He has served as President of the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH), Chair of Watershed Council of American Society of Civil Engineers, and President of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. He has served/serves as editor-in-chief of three journals and two book series and serves on editorial boards of more than 25 journals and three book series. His Google citations include 104,025, H-index of 134; and i-10 index of 1214.

Professor Todini’s research activity, documented by more than 200 articles, has always been directed towards both theory as well as practical application in hydraulics and hydrology (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezio_Todini).
In 1979 he developed an algorithm for the analysis of Water Distribution Networks (WDN), the Global Gradient Algorithm, which has been the basis for the development of EPANET, the most widely used package for analyzing and designing WDN in the world.
His original studies in synthetic hydrology have produced a stochastic generation model, which preserves both long and short-term correlation for the statistical assessment of the Aswan reservoir operating policy. His research in rainfall-runoff modelling has produced several models, the CLS (1976), the ARNO (1989) (which was also included as the soil moisture balance component of the ECHAM GCM model) and the TOPKAPI (1998) models, that have been and still are extensively applied all over the world.
His approach to flood routing has produced models such as the PAB and the PABL, particularly suited for real-time flood forecasting. These models are now in operation on many rivers, together with a 1D/2D package based upon Control Volume Finite Elements. More recently Prof. Todini has found the reason for the non-conservation of mass in the Muskingum-Cunge method and has produced a corrected algorithm, which compares favorably with the results of full Saint Venant equations based commercial packages such as Mike11, Hec and Sobek.
His current research includes the clarification of the concept of predictive uncertainty in Hydrological Forecasting and the development of uncertainty post-processors, such as the Model Conditional Processor. Prof. Todini also deals with the development of Decision Support Systems, combining probabilistic forecasting with Bayesian decision approaches aimed at Reservoirs Management and Flood Risk reduction.
In 2009 he was the Founding President, and today the Honorary President, of the Italian Hydrological Society. In 2010 he retired from the University of Bologna, where he has held the Chair of Hydrology for more than 40 years and from 2013 he mainly collaborates as a consultant with the World Bank.

Prof. Emeritus George Tsakiris was the Director of the Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and director of the Laboratory of Reclamation Works and Water Resources Management, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of NTUA. He has PhD in irrigation engineering from the Civil Engineering Dept. of Southampton University, U.K. He became full Professor in 1988, teaching engineering hydrology, hydraulic works and water resources management. His research interests (among others) include topics of hydro-meteorological extremes (droughts and floods), non-stationary hydrological processes in arid and semiarid regions and adaptive water resources management under uncertainty. He has completed more than 55 European and national research projects, most of which as scientific coordinator. He has published more than 120 peer reviewed papers in international scientific journals and a large number of papers in Proceedings of international and national conferences. He is the author/co-author of five textbooks in Greek and one in English, and the editor of many conference Proceedings. He is the Editor-in-chief of the international journal Water Resources Management published by Springer Nature, and member of the Editorial Boards of several other journals. He has been the key organiser of a large number of international conferences and symposia in several European cities. In 2015 he has earned the distinction and designation of Honorary Diplomate Water Resources Engineer (Hon.D.WRE) from the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE/ASCE). Currently, he is the President of the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) and the National Representative of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). He is listed in the top worldwide 2% of the most influential scientists of Stanford University 2022 and 2023.

Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis is Full Professor of Ecological Engineering and Technology at the School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Prof. Tsihrintzis’ research interests concentrate, among others, in water resources engineering and water management with emphasis on flood control, urban and agricultural drainage and non-point source pollution, water quality of aquatic systems and pollution control, ecohydrology and ecohydraulics, and the use of natural treatment systems (i.e., constructed wetlands and stabilization ponds) for runoff and wastewater treatment. His published research work includes more than 190 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals, over 300 papers in conference proceedings, and more than 100 technical reports. He has also authored or coauthored books and book chapters on constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, hydrology systems, operations research, urban hydrology and runoff quality management, natural systems for wastewater, among others. He has participated as a PI/coordinator or a team member in various research projects in the USA, the EU, and Greece. Dr. Tsihrintzis has supervised more than 150 undergraduate and postgraduate student theses and more than 15 doctoral dissertations. He regularly teaches, among others, Engineering Hydrology, Urban Water Management, Fluid Mechanics, Groundwater, Environmental Engineering, and Natural Wastewater Treatment Systems. He has also served as a Professor and the Head of the Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, for several years, while before this he was an Assistant, and then, tenured Associate Professor of Water Resources Engineering at Florida International University, USA. Finally, Dr. Tsihrintzis has an extensive professional experience as a practicing civil and environmental engineer both in the USA (he was a registered Professional Engineer in California and a Certified Professional Hydrologist by the American Institute of Hydrology) and Greece, having been involved in several land development drainage, hydrology, sediment transport and channel design, water resources management, wetland restoration, and constructed wetlands projects.

Over 55 years’ experience on all phases of Civil and Water Engineering and Desalination Projects such as in the Planning, Feasibility studies, Design, Supervision of Construction, O&M of water and Seawater Desalination Projects. The last twenty years I am the Lenders technical Adviser for funding of Public-Private Partnership Projects mainly Seawater Desalination Projects with capacity over 100 MCM/year.
1968-1982: Irrigation Engineer in the Government of Cyprus, involved on the preparation of the Cyprus Water Masterplan, and on an Integrated Rural Development Project, taking part on the Planning, Preliminary design, cost estimating and feasibility studies, detailed designs and construction as well been in charge of the O&M and Management of the completed projects.

1982-1996: Senior Water Engineer in the Government Department in Charge on the O&M Division and Management of all Irrigation Projects in Cyprus participating also in the planning and design of such projects. Also prepared plans for water resources management under water scarcity due to climate change.

1996-2002: Senior water Engineer at the Water Development Department in charge of O&M of all the Government Domestic water Projects. Monitored and supervised the Construction as well the O&M of two Desalination Projects.

2002-today: Lenders Technical Adviser to Institutions financing BOT Projects in Israel for three Desalination Projects of capital cost more than 1.2 billion USD and for annual capacity 360 MCMMCM and with annual O&M budget of around 300 million US Dollars.Missions with FAO and World Bank Organizations.
1980: Mission to Tanzania for identifying water resources projects.
1996: Mission to Egypt for the preparation of a proposal for financing of the Rehabilitation of all the Pumping Stations in the Nile Delta, valued at 500 million US Dollars.