Professor Taikan Oki wins the Stockholm Water Prize
On March 22nd, 2024, Professor Taikan Oki, Graduate School of Engineering, won the Stockholm Water Prize. The award will be presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at a royal ceremony at Stockholm City Hall in August as part of "Stockholm World Water Week".
Stockholm Water Prize
The Stockholm Water Prize, determined by the Stockholm International Water Institute in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selects the Nobel Prize, is the most prestigious water-related prize in the world. In 2024, Professor Oki was selected as the winner and the award was announced on World Water Day (March 22), which was established by the United Nations. He is the third Japanese recipient, and the first in 23 years, to be awarded the prize.
About awarded research
Professor Oki has provided important insights into how humans are changing water, climate, and the biosphere through numerical modeling of complex systems, and has demonstrated outstanding scholarship that has greatly advanced our understanding of the nexus between hydrology, climate change, and sustainability. Professor Oki's main scientific contribution is in shedding light on a key variable in water management and climate change: total water storage. In particular, Professor Oki's Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP), a digital mapping of the world's major rivers, is the most widely used in the world, quantifying global river flows much more accurately than previously possible and revealing the green water resources (soil moisture) required under various land management and climate scenarios.
Press conference
On March 25, 2024, a press conference was held at the Ito International Research Center on the Hongo Campus.
From left to right: Toru Okabe (Director General of Institute of Industrial Science, UTokyo), Nobuhito Saito (Executive Vice President of UTokyo), Taikan Oki (Professor of Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo), Yasuhiro Kato (Dean of Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo), Kensuke Fukushi (Director of Institute for Future Initiatives, UTokyo)
Professor Taikan Oki