Dr. Mukand S. Babel is a Professor of Water Engineering and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. In addition, he is leading the Climate Change Asia (CCA) initiative at AIT for catalyzing capacity for action to address climate change issues in the region. He was the Chair of Academic Senate of AIT. He has been a Visiting/Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter, UK; Kyoto University, Japan; University Teknologi Mara, Malaysia and Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHIATS), India. Prof. Babel’s professional experience in teaching, research and consultancy spans over 35 years mainly in Asia. He teaches graduate level courses on Watershed Hydrology, Hydrologic and Water Resources Modeling, (Integrated) Water Resources Management and Water Supply and Sanitation.
In 2014, He was appointed as a Member of the Advisory Committee of the World Water Quality Assessment, an initiative of UN-Water Group led by UNEP and GEMS/Water. He has been a Member of the Executive Committee, Asia Pacific Division of IAHR. He was one of Directors of the Executive Board of IWRA (2016-18). He has been a Board Member of the Asia Water Council. He received the 2018 International Award by the Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources.
Dr. Babel has supervised 26 doctoral and 200+ master theses covering diverse areas of hydrology and water resources. With over 250 publications in international refereed journals, books (including one on Climate Change and Water Resources), and book chapters and conference proceedings, he currently conducts interdisciplinary research relating hydrology and water resources with economic, environmental and socioeconomic aspects of water to address diverse water problems and issues including climate change impact and adaptation in water sector. His h-index is 25 with 2251 citations as of 25 July 2019.
Dr. Babel carried out several research and sponsored projects in collaboration with international organizations and governments including Newton Fund Program, UK and Thailand; CGIAR-WLE Program; Dutch Government; DAAD, Germany; CIDA; The World Bank; FAO; UNESCO-IHE; UNU; ADB; DANIDA; ICH, Norway; NEF, Japan; GWP, Sweden; UN-DESA; ASCE; UNESCO; UNEP; IGES, Japan; APN, Japan; UCC-Water, Denmark; Govt. of Thailand; Govt. of Indonesia; Govt. of Nepal; Govt. of Bhutan; and ICAR, Govt. of India, as well as with respected universities, such as Exeter University, UK; Konkuk University, South Korea; Oregon State University, USA; Tohoku University, Japan; and University of Tokyo, Japan.