History of Hydrology Interviews

This first History of Hydrology interview features Professor Siva Sivapalan from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, who was the 2003 John Dalton medallist. He is interviewed by Dr Ross Woods of the University of Bristol, UK at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, 10 April, 2018.

You can find the original video recording on Youtube here.

00:00:21 Introduction
00:01:50 Childhood and youth
00:02:51 Siva’s parents
00:03:36 High school
00:05:56 University in Sri Lanka
00:07:00 Choosing a Masters course at AIT
00:08:53 Initial impressions of hydrology
00:10:42 Memories of AIT, Nigeria, PhD applications
00:21:26 How Siva met his wife Banu
00:24:05 Transition to living in the USA
00:28:15 PhD at Princeton
00:32:52 Move to Australia
00:39:14 Supervision style
00:42:01 PUB - Predictions in Ungauged Basins
00:50:51 Move to the USA
00:52:44 Concept development vs methods
00:55:18 Cutting a path through the jungle
00:57:04 Sources of motivation
00:58:58 Leadership style
01:00:38 Networking
01:02:31 Juggling work and home commitments
01:05:32 Cricket as a metaphor
01:08:18 Personal network
01:10:30 Influential people
01:15:21 Scientific heroes
01:17:19 Planning vs Circumstance
01:20:04 Would you do anything differently?
01:21:29 Dealing with failure
01:22:28 Attributes of our research culture
01:24:24 Happiest moments
01:26:04 Advice for young hydrologists
01:27:42 What needs to be done in hydrology
01:31:42 Closing remarks

Licensed under Creative Commons copyright CC- BY-NC-ND 4.0
Acknowledgments: Video & editing: Alfred Zacharias. Sponsorship: Professor Guenter Blöschl, TU Vienna, Austria. Podcast: Pau Wiersma