Professor Peter Steen Mikkelsen, Department of Environmental Engineering at DTU (DTU Environment) has been awarded the IWA/IAHR Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (JCUD) ‘Mid-Career Achievement Award’.
The award was presented to Peter by the chair of the JCUD, Professor David Butler from Exeter University, during the gala dinner of the 13th International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) in Kuching/Malaysia, 7-12 September 2014. Professor Butler motivated the award:
One of the more pleasurable aspects of chairing the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage is that the chair has the privilege, every three years, of announcing our career achievement awards. We bestow two awards: one for ‘Mid-Career Achievement’ (awarded to someone who is part way through their career and showing important leadership) and the other for ‘Career Achievement’ (awarded to a senior member of our urban drainage community).
The same basic criteria are used for both awards. The key criterion is that the candidate’s contribution in the urban drainage field is internationally recognised and may result from any of:
1. important and influential research findings
2. innovative and formative practice in the field
3. education/dissemination though publication of widely used books and reports/guidelines
4. sustained contributions to the discipline through activities such as conference organisation, reviewing and working group leadership
5. any combination of the above.
Nominations can come from any member of the urban drainage community; however, the actual selection is to be made by the Joint Committee members, through a voting process. This year the selection process was a difficult one as we had a so many high quality candidates. However, the rules state very clearly that there can only be one award in each category.
So, on now to this year’s winners……
"So, it is my very great pleasure to announce Peter Steen Mikkelsen as the winner of the JCUD mid-career achievement award. "
The Joint Committee on Urban Drainage
The winner of the mid-career award is a long-term attendee at this conference series and went to his first event in 1993 in Burlington, Canada. His research has covered many topics within urban drainage but with a primary focus on process understanding followed by parsimonious modelling. He has kept a broad scope in his research, but has always worked with the management of pollutants, identifying sources, transportation mechanisms, and their fate. His research projects always include end-users, not because they are a needed appendix to the research, but as a genuine test of the relevance and innovation level of the findings. His standing in the field is shown by being a key author of three of the last six national guidelines for urban storm water management in his country.
Our winner has been very active within the JCUD, having been a member and past chair, and he was also the key organizer of the 10th International Conference on Urban Drainage in 2005. Within our parent association, IWA he has been involved in the organization of two World Water Conferences as well as being on the Water, Climate and Energy Programme Committee.
Peter Steen Mikkelsen flanked by (left) the past chairman and long-term secretary of the JCUD Dr. Jiri Marsalek, National Water Research Institute, Canada and (right) the outgoing and incoming JCUD chairmen Prof. David Butler, Exeter University, UK and Dr. Manfred Schütze, Institut f. Automation und Kommunikation (ifak), Germany.
The Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (JCUD) is a “specialist group” under the International Water Association (IWA) as well as a “committee” under the Hydro-Environment division of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). Prof. Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen from DTU Environment is currently Danish member of the JCUD board.
The JCUD aims to foster fundamental and applied research on urban drainage, taking into account meteorological, hydrological, hydraulic, water quality and socio-economic aspects, and promote innovative approaches to urban drainage worldwide. Among its specific interests are urban water quality, sewer sediments, source control, stormwater management, combined sewer overflows, real time control of urban drainage systems, drainage in cold and alpine climates, and data and models for urban water.
The JCUD operates a number of Working Groups and holds triennial international conferences and many specialty international conferences. Frequent and productive interactions among JCUD WGs are constantly promoted. The JCUD strives to maintain its long-standing broad international recognition as a prominent contributor to the advancement of the scientific knowledge in the field of urban drainage. It considers its activities in the wider context of urban water systems, with the ambition of developing and promoting a sustainable and integrated urban water management. This implies that the JCUD and its Working Groups are proactive in establishing links and collaboration with specialist groups within IWA, IAHR and outside of these associations, in order to promote its field, capabilities and contributions in such an expanded domain.