Congratulations to Iowa Flood Center Director Witold Krajewski on being selected to receive the 2021 Tadeusz Sendzimir Applied Sciences Award, presented by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) for his outstanding contributions to the field of flood research, particularly flood prediction and flood risk reduction! Krajewski is also the Rose and Joseph Summers Chair in Water Research Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa, as well as a research engineer at IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering (IIHR) and director of the Iowa Flood Center. The Sendzimir Award comes with a certificate and monetary prize of $1,000.

Krajewski, who was born, raised, and educated in Poland, says this honor is particularly significant to him. “It has a great deal of sentimental value,” he explains. His late parents were both academics in Poland; his mother was director of the University of Warsaw Library, and his father was a professor of water resources engineering, and later a visitor at the IIHR. Krajewski believes they would be especially proud of this recognition.

The PIASA awards form a bridge between the United States and Polish culture, education, and science. Inaugurated in 1995, they honor distinguished scholars and scientists for their achievements. The awards are given across a broad swath of academic work, including the fields of history, sociology, natural science, applied sciences, and humanities. The awardees are among the most distinguished in their fields.

“I’m happy to be in that company,” Krajewski says.

Witold Krajewski, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general-scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Election as an AAAS fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

Krajewksi, who is also a research engineer in IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering and director of the Iowa Flood Center, was selected “for major scientific advances in hydrometeorology, flood prediction, and water resources.”

Krajewski’s research spans hydrometeorological processes of rainfall, soil moisture, and flooding. His work has advanced weather radar and satellite remote sensing of rainfall. His work on floods has advanced real-time stream flow forecasting combining rainfall-runoff models and field observations. His studies of the spatial organization of floods in river networks have major implications for estimating future flood frequencies.

Krajewski is one of seven University of Iowa faculty members named as fellows of AAAS in 2021. Read more on Iowa Now to learn about the University of Iowa’s other new AAAS fellows.