Rate My Professor Taikan Oki

Taikan Oki is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, and serves as Special Advisor to the President. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Tokyo in 1993. His previous academic positions include Associate Professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, and Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. He also held the roles of Senior Vice-Rector at the United Nations University and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2016 to 2021.

Oki specializes in hydrology with a focus on global hydrology and the sustainability of world water resources, including virtual water trade, water footprint, global hydrologic cycles, and climate change. He served as a coordinating lead author for the Freshwater Resources chapter of the IPCC WGII Fifth Assessment Report. His honors include the Biwako Prize for Ecology in 2011, the Japan Academy Medal in 2008, election as an AGU Fellow in 2014, the 2021 International Hydrology Prize (Dooge Medal), the 2023 John Dalton Medal from the European Geosciences Union, and the 2024 Stockholm Water Prize. He is a full member of the Club of Rome and the Science Council of Japan and served as President of the Japan Society for Hydrology and Water Resources from 2022 to 2024.