Prof. Upmanu Lall

(BT/CE/1976)

Prof. Upmanu Lall is a Global Futures Professor in the School of Complex Adaptive Systems at Arizona State University, and Director of the ASU Water Institute at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. His work sits at the intersection of hydrology, climate dynamics, water resource systems, risk management and sustainability, with a particular focus on using data science, statistical modelling and systems approaches to address complex water and climate challenges. He received his B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1976, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980 and 1981, respectively. His doctoral work focused on the value of information in relation to uncertainty and risk, building on his earlier work in mathematical modelling of water-energy systems. Prof. Lall began his academic career at the University of Utah and later served as Professor and Associate Director of the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University. He joined Columbia University in 1999 and spent more than two decades there, serving as Alan & Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering, Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, and Director of the Columbia Water Center. He also served as Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and held a senior research role at Columbia's International Research Institute for Climate and Society. At Columbia, Prof. Lall founded and led the Columbia Water Center, developing a multidisciplinary approach to water challenges that brought together hydrology, climate science, statistics, economics, policy and systems analysis. His research has pioneered the application of nonlinear dynamical systems, nonparametric statistical methods, hierarchical Bayesian models, systems optimization and simulation to hydrologic and climatic systems. His work has addressed water resource planning, flood and drought risk, groundwater depletion, climate prediction, agricultural water uses and the water-energy nexus. His research and public engagement have increasingly focused on developing practical solutions to water and climate risks. At ASU, he leads the Water Institute, which brings together researchers and practitioners to forecast and address water challenges at local, national and global scales. His recent work has examined extreme weather, water security, climate resilience and innovative approaches to managing water resources. Most recently, he is pursuing novel adaptive chaos control strategies for steering the atmospheric circulation with the goal of defusing weather extremes such as severe storms, floods, droughts, heat waves and deep freezes. Prof. Lall's contributions have been recognised through numerous honours, including, the Borland Lecture on Hydrology, the Langbein Lecture, and the Peter Eagleson Hydrologic Sciences Award, all from the American Geophysical Union; the Arid Lands Hydrology Research Award and the Ven Te Chow Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Henry Darcy Medal from the European Geosciences Union; and the Jelle Zijlstra Award from the European Chamber of Digital Commerce. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Through his research, institution-building and engagement with governments, development organisations, industry and scientific communities, Prof. Lall has made significant contributions to understanding and addressing the world's interconnected water, climate and sustainability challenges.
Honouring his pioneering contributions to Hydrology, Climate Science, Water Resources Management and Risk Analysis, and his distinguished impact on developing data-driven and multidisciplinary approaches to global water and climate challenges, IIT Kanpur confers upon Prof. Upmanu Lall the Distinguished Alumni Award 2026 under the category of Academic Excellence.