OBITUARY

Eric Wood died on 03/11/2021.

Professor Wood was known for his enormous impact in the field of hydrology. He contributed pioneering work to the development of hydrologic modelling, the use of satellite remote sensing data, and the creation of continental and global climate models for parts of the world that had been historically overlooked.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Eric received a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia before moving to the United States where he earned his doctorate from MIT in 1974. He worked for two years in Austria at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) before joining the faculty at Princeton University in 1976, where he would spend his entire academic career.

Impact was felt not only through his research but also through his professional service to the global scientific community and through his mentoring of more than 30 PhD students and a similar number of postdocs and research staff. Across his entire career, a characteristic of Eric’s approach to research was extensive collaboration, and by joining forces with a global network of leading researchers he was able to make significant advancements and remain at the forefront of the field.

When not working on his research or travelling around the world to conferences and to collaborate with international colleagues, Eric was an avid fisherman, hunter, and skier. He regularly travelled back to British Columbia, Canada for annual salmon fishing trips with friends, ski trips at Whistler and enjoyed deer hunting in upstate New York. He loved cooking, good wine, and played a mean game of cribbage.

Eric died on November 3, 2021 after a multi-year battle with cancer at the age of 74. He is survived by his siblings John, Elizabeth, and Peter, former spouse Katharine, children Alex and Emily, and grandchildren Clementine, August, Elliott, and Silas. 

As a world leader in hydrometeorology, Professor Wood has helped build linkages between large scale atmospheric phenomena and regional scale hydrologic phenomena, and their implications for predictions of water resources and water related natural hazards, such as floods and droughts. He is a pioneer in the use of satellite remote sensing and data assimilation techniques for hydrological state estimation and regional scale water resources predictions. He is the author of models widely used for predictions in ungauged basins under global change (e.g., VIC), including as operational tools for flood forecasting in the USA and for drought monitoring over Africa.