Invited lectures | XLIV International School of Hydraulics

Keynote speaker

Vladimir Nikora

University of Aberdeen (UK)

TBA

Professor Vladimir Nikora is Sixth Century Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics at the School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen (UK). His main research accomplishments relate to the development and applications of new approaches and concepts for describing and predicting rough-bed turbulent flows, sediment dynamics, hydraulic resistance, and flow-biota interactions.

Professor Nikora was an Editor of IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research, JHR (2011-2016) and Associate Editor for AGU Water Resources Research (2006-2011) and ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (2007-2011). He is currently one of Advisory Editors for the IAHR Journal of Ecohydraulics and an Associate Editor for JHR. Professor Nikora is Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland National Academy). He is a recipient of 2010 Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award and 2017 Hans Albert Einstein Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and 7th M. Selim Yalin Lifetime Achievement Award of IAHR. Over the years, he has contributed to IAHR as a Chair of Technical Committees on Fluid Mechanics and on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation, and as a Member of the IAHR Council, among other involvements.

Invited lecturer

Mário J. Franca

Institute for Water and Environment / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)

TBC

Mário Franca is a Full Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Previously, he was Full Professor at IHE Delft and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and held senior positions at the EPFL in Switzerland and at universities in Portugal. His research focuses on the mechanics of flowing water and its interactions with riverine elements, aiming to develop generalized and scalable solutions with societal relevance. More specifically, his work includes turbulent processes in open channel flows, sediment, wood and plastic transport, fluvial morphodynamics, flood risk, density currents, and non-conventional hydropower production. He chaired the MSc in Water Science and Engineering at IHE Delft from 2018 to 2021. Currently is KIT Academic Director of the joint EUCOR MSc in Continental Water Sustainability, with the University of Strasbourg and ENGEES. Mário has 25 years of consulting experience in hydraulic engineering, including consulting work on emergency planning for natural and dam-break floods, dam design, hydropower, water supply, river engineering, and the safety of hydraulic infrastructures. He was Associate Editor of Water Resources Research (AGU) from 2016 to 2025 and became a Fellow of IAHR in 2025.

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