We are delighed to announce that several IAHR members have been awarded the 11th Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water

Leading international scientists with a diversity of backgrounds -- including ecohydrology, chemistry, engineering, and environmental science, as well as hydrology -- won the five prizes for a wide variety of relevant, groundbreaking solutions that promise to help provide needed drinking water to the world's people. The winners hail from institutions in China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Winners 11th Award (2024)

• Creativity Prize: The team of Maria Cristina Rulli (Polytechnic of Milan, Italy) and Paolo D’Odorico (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

  They spearheaded novel analyses of the water-energy-food nexus, describing how numerous, complex factors interact, providing managers and policymakers better ways to be stewards of freshwater in a changing, globalised world.

• Creativity Prize: The team of Zhiguo He (Zhejiang University, China) IAHR Member

  The team is awarded for developing working, versatile soft robots with unprecedented manoeuvrability that have the capacity for numerous underwater research and monitoring applications. 
  

  Team members include: Pengcheng Jiao and Yang Yang.

  
  

  

• Surface Water Prize: Qiuhua Liang (Loughborough University, UK) and his team. IAHR Member

  The team is awarded for developing pioneering, open-source, multi-GPU hydrodynamic models to support real-time flood forecasting at fine temporal resolutions.
  Team members include: Huili Chen, Xiaodong Ming, Xilin Xia, Yan Xiong and Jiaheng Zhao.

  

• Groundwater Prize: Chunmiao Zheng (Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, China) and his team.

  The team is awarded for developing powerful tools to understand groundwater processes in ecohydrologic systems under diverse hydrological and climatic conditions, taking into account various environmental and socioeconomic factors, which can be employed by water managers locally and nationally.
  Team members include: Yingying Yao and Erhu Du.

• Alternative Water Resources Prize: Virender K. Sharma (Texas A&M University, USA) and his team.

  The team is awarded for pioneering techniques using activated ferrate in advanced oxidative processes to effectively remove antibiotics and pharmaceuticals from wastewater. These processes work at high, and even enhanced, efficiency in water containing commonly occurring natural organic matter that often inhibit the effectiveness of oxidative processes in removing micropollutants.
  Team members include: Ching-Hua Huang, Chetan Jinadatha and Radek Zbořil.

• Water Management & Protection Prize: Joseph Hun-wei Lee (Macau University of Science and Technology, China). IAHR Member

  He is awarded for developing unique and highly effective hydro-environmental modelling systems for the sustainable water management of smart cites.

  

Congratulations to all the winners!

About PSIPW 

PSIPW is a leading, global scientific award focusing on cutting-edge innovation in water research. It gives recognition to scientists, researchers and inventors around the world for pioneering work that addresses the problem of water scarcity in creative and effective ways.

To this end, PSIPW offer a suite of five prizes every two years, covering the entire water research landscape.

Nominations are currently open for the 12th Award (2026). Nominations can be made online for all five prizes directly through the PSIPW website: www.psipw.org