Siegfried Demuth

Siegfried Demuth was born in 1953 near Lake Constance in Germany. He studied Hydrology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Meteorology at the University of Freiburg and received a diploma in Physical Geography/Hydrology in 1981. In 1985 he received his doctoral degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Freiburg with a study on the water budget and water quality aspects of the Fayium Oases in Egypt. From 1985 to 1988 he undertook a research mission to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (formerly the Institute of Hydrology) at Wallingford, UK where he developed, in collaboration with a small group of international scientists, the Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data (FRIEND) project, now a major cross-cutting programme of the IHP. Upon his return to the Institute of Hydrology at the University of Freiburg in 1989, he co-developed fully-fledged curricula in hydrology. In 1993 he received his ‘Habilitation in Hydrology’. In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Hydrology and his principal research fields were low flow analysis, regionalization and climate change. In 2003 he became Director of the German IHP/HWRP Secretariat until he joined IHP/UNESCO in November 2006 as Chief of the Hydrological Processes and Climate Section of the Division of Water Sciences.

Mr Demuth has served as officer on various committees of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), particularly as Secretary of the International Commission of Surface Water and is currently President of the International Commission of Surface Water. From 2004-2006 he served on the IHP Bureau as Vice-Chairperson representing UNESCO Member States from Europe and North America. During the same period, he also served as Chairperson of the German IAHS Committee and as a member of the Scientific Board of the Hydrological Society (DWA). From 2003-2006, he was Hydrological Adviser of the President of the German Weather Service to WMO, and from 2004 to 2006, he was a member of the Advisory Working Group of the Commission for Hydrology (Chy) of WMO. From 1994 to 2003 he held the positions of Deputy Director of the Institute of Hydrology at the University of Freiburg, Associate Editor of the Hydrological Sciences Journal and reviewer of several international journals. He was also a member of the German National Commission for UNESCO from 2003-2006.