Vit Klemes

Vit Klemes ( born April 30, 1932 † March 8, 2010 ) was a Canadian hydrologist of Czech descent.

Life

Klemes received his graduate degree in civil engineering from the Technical University of Brno, followed by a post graduate course in Hydrology at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, and graduated at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

After the Soviet invasion as a result of the Prague Spring in September 1968 his family emigrated to Canada. At the University of Toronto, he obtained a position as associate professor, first at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, then at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. In 1972 he got a research position for Hydrology at the National Hydrology Research Institute of Environment Canada, where he worked as a Research Director of the Institute after moving from Ottawa to Saskatoon. He remained there for 17 years. From 1990 to 1999 he was a consultant for water management in Victoria (British Columbia).

During his career Klemes has published more than 150 works and taught at many universities worldwide. He was visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Monash University in Melbourne, the University of Agricultural Sciences Vienna, the University of Karlsruhe, and Invited Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique ( INRS ) at the Université du Québec.

Awards

1987 Klemes President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences ( IAHS ). He has received several research awards, among others, the Gold Medal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences ( 1993), the International Hydrology Prize of the IAHS (1994 ), the Ray K. Linsley Award from the American Institute of Hydrology (1995), and the Ven te Chow Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (1998).