Water-monitoring technology earns ASU expert recognition from UN
Water-monitoring technology earns ASU expert recognition from UN
Publish Date: 2026-06-22 15:08:00
Source Domain: news.asu.edu
By Lori Baker
Arizona State University global water expert Jay Famiglietti has received one of the world’s most prestigious honors in water science: the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, to be presented during a ceremony at the United Nations Office in Vienna.
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Famiglietti and his team of current and former graduate students and researchers — including ASU research scientists Hrishi Chandanpurkar and Karem Abdelmohsen — were awarded the creativity prize, the most significant of the five awards presented worldwide this cycle.
The award recognizes Famiglietti’s pioneering work that transformed NASA satellite data into a powerful tool for tracking groundwater depletion and freshwater loss across the planet. His research helped turn observations from NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite missions into practical information used by scientists, policymakers and water managers to monitor drought, aquifer depletion and the impacts of climate change.
Awarded every two years, the prize recognizes groundbreaking contributions to solving global water challenges. Famiglietti’s work has fundamentally changed how the world measures and understands its most critical freshwater resources.
Famiglietti is a Global Futures professor in the School of Sustainability and is involved with the ASU Water Institute at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. His multidisciplinary background spans geology, hydrology and civil engineering.
“I have been fortunate to work with some of the brightest and most creative students and postdocs throughout my career,” he said. “This award is a testament to their hard work. Importantly, this prize shines a global spotlight on the importance of groundwater to water supplies, worldwide. We will use the attention to raise the profile of water resources in U.N. climate dialogues.”
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