Dr Kaveh Madani, senior lecturer in environmental management at Imperial, to receive the EGU Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists.

Dr. Kaveh Madani, from Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy, will receive the the award in 2016.

The Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists recognises scientific achievements in any field of the Geosciences, made by an early career scientist. Dr Madani receives this recognition for his “fundamental contributions to integrating game theory and decision analysis into conventional water resources management.”

Kaveh Madani is known internationally for the successful integration of game theory into traditional water resources management. His fundamental contributions have helped the larger water management community realize why traditional water management solutions fail in practice, as water users are often base their decisions on individual rationality as opposed to group rationality. In a TEDx talk on water conflicts and water wars which received significant international attention, he explained how he developed interest in game theory and integration of behavioural sciences into water management.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the geosciences and the planetary and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. The EGU was formed in 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG),

At its annual assembly in April of each year in Vienna, the EGU honours researchers from both European and non-European countries for their important contributions to the Earth, planetary and space sciences.

Awards and medals are given at both the Union (up to eight medals and awards, including four Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists) and Division level (up to 48 medals and awards, including 22 division level Awards for Outstanding Young Scientists).

Since 1983, EGU has awarded Union-level recognitions to 136 pioneers of geosciences around the world, including 46 early career scientists. Dr Madani is the first Imperial researcher receiving an award at Union level.

The top four candidates out of the 22 selected Outstanding Young Scientists at the Division level are selected for an award at the Union level. Dr Madani was the selected candidate for the Hydrologic Sciences Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award, and was finally selected for the award at the Union level.

Dr. Erik van Sebille, Lecturer in Oceanography and Climate Change at the Grantham Institute and the Department of Physics, is another Imperial College researcher selected this year at the Division level for an early-career award. He will be receiving the Ocean Sciences Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award.