Governance

Bernard Barraqué is a French civil engineer with a master’s degree in city planning from Harvard University, and a PhD in urban socio-economic issues from Paris University. He is CNRS research director (emeritus), specialising in water use related socio-economic issues, particularly in urban environments. In 2015, in the preparation of the Climate COP21 in Paris, he reviewed for the World Bank the reports on water-related impacts of climate change.

Stuart Bunn is a senior member of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University and, until July 2022, was the founding Director. His major research interests are in the ecology of river and wetland systems with a particular focus on the science to underpin river management.  Stuart has extensive experience working with international and Australian government agencies and industry on water resource management issues and has been an active member and chair of state and national science advisory committees.

Simon Cox is an emeritus researcher with a PhD in Geophysics from Columbia University. After four years lecturing in Earth Sciences at Monash University, he specialised in the online dissemination of geoscientific research data. His work on Observations and Measurements has been widely applied in many earth and environmental science applications. More recently, Simon Cox worked on the alignment of natural- and social-science metadata, and digital representation of units-of-measurement.

Despo Fatta-Kassinos is a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cyprus. With a Chemical Engineering background and further studies in Environmental management/education, her record includes more than 180 journal publications. Among other scientific recognitions, in 2012 she received the distinguished National Research Award by the Research and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus. Between 2015 and 2019, she has served as the Chair of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Board of the European JPI ‘Water Challenges for a Changing World’ (2015-2019).

Nancy Grimm is an ecologist, specialised in nature-based, technological, and governance solutions that can build ecosystem resilience. She was President of the Ecological Society of America and was founding director of the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research of Arizona State University. She now co-directs the NATURA and ESSA networks. In streams, Nancy Grimm studies how hydrologic and climatic variability influence ecosystem processes, notably stream metabolism and nutrient dynamics.

Hege Hisdal is Director of the hydrology department of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. Her research has focused on hydrological extremes and their temporal and spatial variability.  For the last 15 years, she has in particular looked at the application of hydro-meteorological and statistical models, methods and data to underpin hydroclimate services such as flood forecasting, estimation in ungauged river basins and climate change adaptation.  She has been involved in an increasing number of transdisciplinary projects, focussing notably on the association between extreme weather and waterborne illness and how to increase local adaptive capacity by planning and learning network.

Helen Jarvie joined the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo, Canada, in January 2020, as Professor of Water and Global Environmental Change. Before relocating to Canada, she worked at the U.K. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology for 25 years.  Her research interests focus on river  biogeochemistry: the role of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) in eutrophication, from watershed to global perspectives. Helen Jarvie's research informs water quality policy and decision-making for the sustainable use of water and nutrient resources.

Alan MacDonald is head of Groundwater at the British Geological Survey and honorary Professor at the University of Dundee (Scotland).  Main areas of research are water security, with a focus on climate change, the resilience of groundwater systems to environmental change, and sub-surface flow within catchments. Alan has a track record of managing research consortia and providing advice to government departments in the UK and abroad.  This includes leading two influential studies for the UK Government on the resilience of groundwater to climate change in Africa and South Asia, and examining handpump sustainability across Africa.

Robert Naiman is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington (US). His research explores the structure and dynamics of river ecosystems. He has chaired several national and international committees on water issues and is former UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Rivers. In recognition for his research and collaborations, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France) and received the Eminent Scientist award from the Ecological Society of America.

Margaret Palmer is the Director of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). She is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland (US), where she oversees research focused on watershed science and restoration ecology. She is also known for her work at the interface of water science and policy, having served as a technical advisor and innovator to help build solution-focused teams that solve problems with social, legal, policy and scientific aspects.

Espen Volden is working as a scientific coordinator within the Earth Observation Science, Applications and Climate Department of the European Space Agency (ESA), which he joined in 2000. He has more than 25 years of experience in remote sensing, including three years in the European Commission as a programme manager involved in preparing the Copernicus Land and Climate Services. His current research focus is on scientific applications related to agriculture and to the water cycle.