Planning Committee

Anik Bhaduri

Executive Director

Anik Bhaduri is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Water Future Programme (Water Future), Director of the Asia Science Mission, Adjunct Professor at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, and Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University. Previously, he served as Executive Officer of the Global Water System Project (GWSP).

Anik Bhaduri has extensive research experience in theoretical and applied water economics, with a focus on water assessments, resource allocation, climate change impacts, and adaptation strategies. His work has contributed to integrating geostatistical models with spatial projections of economic development, demographics, land use, water allocation, and climate in assessing human water risks.

As Executive Director of Water Future and Director of the Asia Science Mission under Future Earth, Anik coordinates international research networks and collaborative synthesis initiatives involving more than 400 researchers across fifteen interdisciplinary working groups. His work focuses on socio-ecological resilience, sustainability governance, mission-oriented science, and strengthening science-policy-investment linkages across Asia and globally. He also currently serves as Co-Chair of Future Earth Asia, supporting regional collaboration on sustainability science and systems transformation.

Anik currently contributes to a joint initiative with UNESCO as a core committee member on “Science for SDG6: Science to Accelerate the Implementation of SDG6,” focusing on the role of 21st-century science in addressing gaps in SDG monitoring, assessment, and implementation. He also serves as a committee member of UNESCO’s task force on National Water Assessments.

Previously, Anik was seconded to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome as Senior Expert Consultant to help develop the methodology for the FAO flagship report on the State of Land and Water Resources for Agriculture (SOLAW21).

András Szöllösi-Nagy

Chair of the Planning Committee

András Szöllösi-Nagy is currently the Chair of the Planning Committee for Sustainable Water Future Programme and Research Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies Köszeg (iASK). Previously, he was the Rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and a Professor of Stochastic Hydrology both at UNESCO-IHE and TU Delft. His research fields include time series analysis, stochastic modelling, state space methods, adaptive systems, real-time hydrological forecasting and control of water resources systems using recursive algorithms. He serves, as elected Governor, on the Board of Governors of the World Water Council, and is elected fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS).

Richard Lawford

Member of the Planning Committee and Chair of the Data and Earth Observation Core Group

Richard Lawford is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP) and the co- principal investigator of SWFP’s cluster activity on Water Energy Food Nexus. He explores the linkages between Earth observations of water and climate as they relate to observational methodologies (including satellites), data processing and visualization systems, information interpretation and the use of information in decision support and policy development. His specific areas of application involve climate and hydrological information, water resource management and capacity building.

As a senior scientific advisor of SWFP, Ricchard Lawford provides advice related to Natural and Social Capital in the water sector and the role of Earth observations and integrated information in achieving these goals. He also maintains links between the activities and goals of the Water Resources programme within the Group on Earth Observations and the SWFP. Beyond his role in SWFP, he also serves as the chair of the Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations Community of Practice and as a coordinator for the GEO Global Water Sustainability (GEOGLOWS) Initiative. His experience includes conducting hydrometeorlogical research, managing research programmes, directing a global science programme, science policy development for water and natural resources and training meteorologists.

Claudia Pahl-Wostl

Member of the Planning Committee and Co-Chair of the Water Governance Core Group

Claudia Pahl-Wostl is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Future Water Programme (SWFP) and Professor for Resources Management and Director of the Institute for Environmental Systems Research at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and a former co-chair of the Global Water System Project. Her major research interests are adaptive, multi-level governance and management of water resources, social and societal learning and their role in sustainability transformations, and conceptual and methodological frameworks to analyse social-ecological systems. Her emphasis on interdisciplinary work is reflected in her role as editor of three books and twelve special issues in peer reviewed journals.

Photo courtesy of: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Claudia Ringler

Member of the Planning Committee and Member of the Sustainable W-E-F Nexus Working Group

Claudia Ringler is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP) and Deputy Division Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She also manages IFPRI’s Natural Resource Theme and co- leads the Institute’s water research program. She is currently also a co- manager of the Managing Resource Variability and Competing Uses flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Lands and Ecosystems (WLE) and chairs the Food, Energy, Environment and Water Network. Her research interests are water management, global food and water security, natural resource constraints to global food production, and the synergies of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Photo courtesy of: YouTube

Janos J. Bogardi

Member of the Planning Committee

Janos J. Bogardi is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP), the chair of German National Committee of the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP) and a senior fellow at Centre of Development Research , University of Bonn, Germany. He earned his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany and was Professor for Hydraulics and quantitative Water Resource Management at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, the Netherlands and has also worked with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France. He was then appointed the director of the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, Germany. In June 2008, he was honoured by the International Cannes Water Prize‚ Grand Prix des Lumières de l‘Eau de Cannes‘.

Charles Vörösmarty

Member of the Planning Committee

Charles Vörösmarty is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP) and is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the City University of New York. Charles was the founding chair of the Global Water System Project. His research focuses on the development of computer models and geospatial data sets used in synthesis studies of the interactions among the water cycle, climate, biogeochemistry and anthropogenic activities. His studies are built around local, regional and continental to global-scale modelling of water balance, discharge, constituent fluxes in river systems and the analysis of the impacts of large-scale water engineering on the terrestrial water cycle.

Photo Courtesy of: CUNY Advanced Science Research Center

Stuart Bunn

Member of the Planning Committee

Stuart Bunn is a member of the Planning Committee for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP), a Professor and Director of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. 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 on water resource management issues. Stuart was a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Global Water System Project, the Chair of the Scientific Expert Panel for the Southeast Queensland Healthy Waterways Partnership and has previously served as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Council.

Photo courtesy of: Griffith University