Dr Jianyun Zhang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, international fellow of the British Royal Academy of Engineering, is currently the honorary president of Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, president of the Yangtze Institute of Conservation and Development, and director general of the Research Centre of Climate Change under the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources (MWR). He is also serving as the editor-in-chief of the journal, Advances in Water Science, and professor at Hohai University. In his earlier career, Dr Zhang served as the chief engineer of the MWR Bureau of Hydrology (1998-2006), general designer of the commanding system for the national flood control and drought relief (1997-2002), Chairman of the Chinese National Committee of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (CNC-IAHS) (2003-19), member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Commission for Hydrology (CHy) (2004-08), and editor-in-chief for the Journal of China Hydrology (1998-2006).

Dr Zhang has been a long-time dedicated researcher in the fields of hydrology, water resources, flood control and drought relief, climate change impacts, and hydro-informatics. He led the development of a series of key systems, such as the national flood forecasting and warning system, the decision supporting system for flood control and drought relief, and the integrated hydro-meteorological information system, etc. These systems are providing important technical supports in national endeavours for reducing natural disasters like flooding and droughts. He has also contributed significantly to the fields of flood forecasting models, climate change impacts on hydrological cycle and adaptation, methods of design precipitation and design floods, and reservoir operation and dam safety. His research findings from a project on dam safety and resilience have been widely applied in China’s management practices of reservoirs and dams, improving overall dam safety and generating extensive socio-economic benefits.