Prof. Dr. M S Babel

Dr. Mukand Babel is a Distinguished Professor of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. He is also the Director of the Centre for Water and Climate Adaptation (CWCA) at AIT which contributes to three core domains of research, capacity building, and consultancy in water and climate sectors. He has been a Visiting/Honorary Professor at UNU-FLORES, Germany; IIT Guwahati, India, IIT Roorkee, India; Beijing Normal University, China; University of Exeter, UK; Kyoto University, Japan; University Teknologi Mara, Malaysia; and Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), India.

His professional experience in teaching, research, and consultancy spans over 40 years mainly in Asia in fields of hydrologic and water resources modelling, integrated water resources management, climate change impact and adaptation, nature-based solutions (NbS), and flood and drought risk management. He has supervised 40+ doctoral students, and 220+ Master students for their research and has trained 1000+ professional staff from governments, NGOs, and private sector in diverse areas of water management.

He has introduced 44 new courses, degree programs, curricula. He has co-authored more than 211 journal articles in high impact international journals with current h-index of 49. He has worked in 90+ research and sponsored projects, funded by FCDO & IDRC, DAAD, UNEP, ASCE, UN-DESA, FAO, CGIAR, CIDA, DANIDA, IGES, APN, ANSO, WB, ADB, UNESCO and other governments in the region and has collaborated with Asian, European, UK and other international partners. He has organized over 71 training courses, conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Prof. Babel has been a Member of the Executive Committee, APD-IAHR since 2015 and one of the Directors of the Executive Board of IWRA (2016-18). He has been a Board Member of the Asia Water Council since its inception in 2016. In 2025, he was listed as “Top Scholars by Institution” rankings by ScholarGPS for lifetime achievement. He was recognized among the top 2% of influential scientists globally in Environmental Engineering in the annual rankings published by Stanford University in 2023 and 2024. He was among the world’s top 1000 influential climate scientists in the Reuters Hot List published in 2021. He appeared in the top 2% list of scientists in the world in 2020 for research impact based on 2019 achievement in Engineering.

Dr. Babel received the 2018 International Award from the Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources.