Professor Günter Blöschl (born 11 July 1961) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

hydrologist Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and academic. In 2020, Blöschl was elected as a member of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

for international leadership in the prediction and management of extreme hydrological events.

Education

Günter Blöschl holds a Diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) in

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

(1985), a Ph.D. in Hydrology (1990), and a Senior Doctorate (Habilitation) in Hydrology (1997), all from the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien () is a public research university in Vienna, Austria. The university's teaching and research are focused on engineering, computer science, and natural sciences. It currently has about 28,100 students (29% women), eight faculties, and ...

Career and research

Blöschl was an assistant professor (1985–1992, 1994–1997) at the

. During that time, he was a research fellow at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

(1989), a visiting fellow at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(1992–1993, 1997), and a research fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, Canberra (1992–1994). In 1997, he was appointed associate professor of Hydrology and in 2007 full professor and chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management at the Vienna University of Technology. Since 2012 he has been the Head of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at Vienna University of Technology. In 2014 he was appointed advisory professor at

Hohai University Hohai University (HHU; ) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Water Resources, the State Oceanic Administra ...

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, and a distinguished visiting professor at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in 2017. Blöschl chairs the Scientific Advisory Council of the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) and has been chair of the Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative of the International Association Hydrological Sciences whose ''Synthesis'' book he has edited. From 2013 to 2015 he was president of the

European Geosciences Union The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet". The organisation has headq ...

. For 2017-2021 he is the president of the

International Association of Hydrological Sciences The International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) is a non-profit, non-governmental scientific organization committed to serving the science of hydrology and the worldwide community of hydrologists. The IAHS was established in 1922, ...

. He was editor of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

’s journal ''Water Resources Research''. He has been a member of the Progetto Firenze 2016 International Advisory Board that provided strategic advice on flood-proofing for the city of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

after the devastating 1966 flood. His main research interests are in

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

and

water resource management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either Fresh water, freshwater from natural sources, or water produ ...

and in particular understanding and predicting

floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. An ERC Advanced Grant on ‘Deciphering River Flood Change’ was awarded to him. Using this grant, he demonstrated the role of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

in increasing flood risk at the European scale which he published in ''

Science Magazine ''Science'' is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a subscrib ...

'' 2017 and in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' 2019. He is currently leading the HORA 3.0 project where flood risk is mapped for of Austrian streams. As the director of the Vienna Doctoral Programme on Water Resource Systems, which is funded by the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund () is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a large variety of grant programmes, prizes and by funding infrastru ...

, Blöschl is coordinating interdisciplinary water research. He is also directing the Hydrology Open Air Laboratory (HOAL) where detailed field observations are performed to understand water and matter fluxes in the landscape. Throughout his career, Günter Blöschl has been a strong advocate of bridging the gap between understanding fundamental processes and the practice of water resources management. He has published about 300 peer-reviewed papers and several books.

Awards and honours

Blöschl is an international member of the

Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna The Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna (''Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna'') is an academic society in Bologna, Italy, that was founded in 1690 and prospered in the Age of Enlightenment. Today it is closely associated ...

(2017) and the

(2020). He received the

Robert E. Horton Medal The Robert E. Horton Medal is given out by the American Geophysical Union to recognize "outstanding contributions to the geophysical aspects of hydrology". The award was created in 1974 and named after Robert E. Horton to honor his contributions t ...

from the

(AGU) in 2015, became a Corresponding Member of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

(ÖAW) in 2014, received the Helmholtz International Fellow Award of the

Helmholtz Association The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres () is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. The official mission of the Association is "solving the g ...

, Germany in 2014, and the International Hydrology Prize from the IAHS in 2013. He was named Boussinesq Lecturer of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Netherlands in 2013. He also is an ERC Advanced Grant Laureate, and was named Leonardo Lecturer: EGU in 2011. He received the Creativity Prize of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018 and the John Dalton Medal from the European Geophysical Union in 2019. Blöschl is a member of the

German Academy of Science and Engineering Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering () on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of German technical sciences independently, in self-determination and guided by the commo ...

(Acatech) (2010), and has been a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 2006, and the International Water Academy, Norway since 2003.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blöschl, Günter 1961 births Living people Hydrologists TU Wien alumni Academic staff of TU Wien