Thorsten Wagener

Hydrology

Water is life. We drink it, wash and cook with it, but we also need it to supply power and for industrial production. So, an adequate supply of water is essential to us. Too much water can, however, threaten our existence. Particularly in times of climate change and irregular rainfall, models that explain and predict how and when hydrologic extremes like flooding and drought come about are in great demand. Models that use mathematics to describe hydrologic processes and dangers are Thorsten Wagener’s research field. His methods for reducing uncertainty in hydrologic modelling and prediction have set standards in his research area – and not just there. A software developed by him and his team is now also used worldwide, for example, in the insurance sector and engineering.
What’s more, water knows no boundaries. International, interdisciplinary cooperation is very important to Thorsten Wagener. He wants to establish hydrology as a key science that can deliver important insights into the role of water events in spreading infectious diseases and into the local impacts of climate change.

Brief bio

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Wagener was born in Germany and has been Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering at the University of Bristol, UK, since 2012. After attending university in Siegen and Delft (Netherlands), including a period spent in Ethiopia, he completed his doctorate at Imperial College London in 2002. He then relocated to Pennsylvania State University in the United States, where he became an assistant professor in 2004 and an associate professor in 2009. Thorsten Wagener has received many honours, such as the Humboldt Foundation’s Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award and the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award; he is co-editor of various journals, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In January 2021 he took up his position as a Humboldt Professor at the University of Potsdam.

Photos and videos