1991-1995
Prof. Uri Shamir is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Founding Director (1992-2003) of the Stephen and Nancy Grand Water Research Institute, at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Prof. Shamir's expertise is hydrology, optimization methodologies and techniques, water resources management and policy. He holds a BSc (1962) from the Technion and a PhD (1966) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He teaches, conducts research and consults in Israel and around the world on hydrology and water resources management. Since 1992 Prof. Shamir has been a consultant to the Israeli Water and Sewage Authority (IWA) on matters of operation, planning and policy, and previously (1967-92) was consultant to Mekorot, the National Water Supply Company. He is a member of the IWA's core team that elaborated the Water Master Plan for Israel (approved in August 2012), a member of the negotiating team with Israel's neighbors on water, chairs the Steering Team for Monitoring Lake Kinneret and its Watershed, and member of the Israel-4 Steering Committee for rainfall enhancement by cloud seeding.
Uri was Visiting Professor in various universities and research institutes in the US and Canada, and has published widely on research and applications in hydrology of surface and ground water, water supply systems, planning, design and operation of water resources systems, water policy, and management of international waters.
Prof. Shamir was Chairman of the Israeli Association of Hydrology (1984-1986), President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (1991-1995), Vice President of IUGG the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (1995-2003) and IUGG President (2003- 2007). He was Member of the Executive Board of the International Council of Science (ICSU) for the periods 2005-2008 and 2008-2011, representing the GeoUnions cluster. Prof. Shamir is Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP-TAC), the UN water programme led by UNESCO. The TAC advises the preparation of the World Water Development Reports (WWDRs) with several hundred contributors around the world; WWDR-2015 is the next edition.
He is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Foreign Member of the Spanish Academy of Science, Honorary Member of the Israel Water Resources Association, recipient of the 2000 International Hydrology Prize awarded by IAHS, UNESCO and WMO, recipient of the 2003 Julian Hinds Award for significant contributions to water resources management from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Fellow of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the ASCE, and recipient of the Life-Long Achievement Award of the Israeli Water Association.