Ana Maria Ferreira da Silva - Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada 

Candidate for:

Vice-President for the Americas

Biography

Professor Ana Maria F. da Silva is a Full Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen’s University in Canada. Born and raised in Portugal, she holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering (1985) from the University of Porto, Portugal, and a M.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1995) from Queen’s University. She previously worked for the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Lisbon, Portugal (1985-1989), the US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi (1996-97), and the University of Windsor, Canada (1997-2000). Her main research interests are Environmental Fluid Mechanics, River Mechanics, and Large-Scale River Morphology and Morphodynamics. She has published extensively in these topics, and especially on large-scale bed forms, resistance to flow, and the hydro-morphodymanics of meandering rivers. 

She first got involved in IAHR activities soon after attending as a young researcher the 1989 IAHR Biennial/World Congress in Ottawa, Canada, and became a member in 2001. She has since served IAHR as secretary, chair and past chair of the Fluvial Hydraulics Committee (2001-2013), co-opted Council member (2007-2009), and member of the Council Nominating Committees for the 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2021 Council Elections, Council Task Force 4 on Gender Equity (2016-2017), Council Task Force for review of the publications portfolio (2021-2022), John F. Kennedy Student Paper Competition selection panel (2009, 2013, 2015) and Awards Committee (2022-2023). She organized River Flow 2022 as chair of the Local Organizing Committee. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and presently serves as an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering. 

Statement 

I am deeply grateful to the Nominating Committee for selecting me for the election for IAHR Vice-Presidency. This election is happening at a moment when we are fast approaching another milestone in IAHR, its 90th Anniversary in 2025, which will bring us together to celebrate nine decades of global leadership in hydro-environment engineering and research. IAHR was an extraordinary association when I first came in contact with it as a young researcher, and it is even more so now. In the meantime we have seen climate change and its effects crystalize into the biggest challenges of the 21st century, with the consequences of climate change on our water bodies from source to sea being compounded by population growth and urbanization – all leading to a plethora of water related issues emerging at various levels, from local to global. In the process, IAHR has become more necessary than ever, and we can all be grateful to its recent leadership for their efforts in expanding and revitalizing the association to incorporate our present- day challenges. Much remains to be done and like any modern institution, IAHR needs constant attention so as to remain financially viable, relevant and vibrant. If elected Vice-President, it will be a great privilege to contribute to the strategic and organizational development of IAHR, and help ensure its continued success into the future. Being from the Americas region, it will also be a great privilege to act as link between the association and the interests and aspirations of the members from Latin America, the Caribbean, USA and Canada.  

Additionally, and motivated by my professional and personal experiences both inside and outside IAHR, I would work towards: 

• Enhancing the active participation of young professionals, including young researchers and practitioners, at all levels within IAHR. This is an effort in which I have been involved in many ways over the years, and remains one of my primary areas of interest. However, I believe that we must also ensure that the relationship that is created between IAHR and undergraduate and graduate students when they first participate in an IAHR event or events flourishes into a lifelong connection with the association as they graduate and move on to academia, industry and government positions, and that IAHR remains fully beneficial to them irrespective of the path they decide to follow. What do we need to do to ensure this? In my view, the answer involves work in different areas, which motivate my next three points. 

• Developing an association more representative of the symbiotic relationship between hydro-environment research and practice and related fields, and in particular climatology, hydrology, geomorphology, earth sciences and environmental sciences, including biology, aquatic ecology and environmental chemistry. I am especially interested in promoting inter-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration within IAHR by partnering with other scientific and/or professional societies and agencies in the organization of joint conferences, publications, short courses, etc. 

• Increasing the value of the association to existing and future members, including practitioners, by promoting reflection of existing weaknesses and the development of corrective actions. 

• Increasing gender equity and geographic diversity. While for me it has been an immense pleasure throughout the years to see increasing participation of women in IAHR and see women rise to leadership positions, the work in this area is never done, and in my experience it requires continuous commitment and efforts by the IAHR Executive Committee and the Council. If elected, I pledge to continue these efforts, together with efforts to increase participation from geographic areas under-represented within IAHR.