Award Winner 2005: Malin Falkenmark

Professor Malin Falkenmark at Stockholm International Water Institute was awarded the Rachel Carson Prize 2005 for her long standing research for an ecologically defensible use of the resources of the earth, focusing at the same time on sufficient water supply for people all over the world. Her work has always implied a natural as well as sociological scientific approach.

She was given the prize by MP (later Minister) Magnhild Meltvedt Kleppa.

Malin Falkenmark was born on November 21st, 1925. She is Fil.Lic from Uppsala University, 1964, Ph.D. Honoris causa, Linköping University, 1975, and Professor of Applied and International Hydrology, 1986.

She spent most of her scientific career as Executive Secretary of the National Committee for Unesco's International Hydrological Decade Programme. This position, and her own research, made her internationally acknowledged and highly respected. Since 1976 she has been involved in interdisciplinary research at the The Department. for Water and Environment Studies at Linköping University, a school for Ph.D. students.

Malin Falkenmark has also been a scientific adviser to Stockholm Water Companyes, where she for many years was Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee of the annual Stockholm Water Symposia. She has a number of international positions, many of them administered by the United Nations. She has been invited as a key speaker to a large number of international conferences. She is a future oriented water scientist, with focus on man, land, water, ecosystems and their political implications.

Similarly to Rachel Carson, she is both a scientist and a writer. Among her most important publications are: "Water for a Starving World" (1976), "World freshwater problems. Call for a new realism" (1997), "Freshwater as shared between societies and ecosystems" (2003), and "Balancing water for humans and nature" (2004).