- 2023 Prof. Jay Famiglietti, Arizona State University, USA: Remote sensing in hydrology
- 2022 Prof. Ying Fan Reinfelder, Rutgers, USA: Groundwater-surface water interactions
- 2021 Prof. John Selker, Oregon State University, USA: Innovations in measurements
- 2020 Prof. Sonia Seneviratne, ETH Zürich, Switzerland: Drought
- 2019 Prof. Georgia Destouni, Stockholm University, Sweden: Water Quality
- 2018 Prof. Reed Maxwell, Colorado School of Mines, USA: Groundwater, global modeling
- 2017 Prof. Chris Kummerow, Colorado State University, USA: Precipitation
- 2016 Prof. Gaby Katul, Duke University, USA: Evaporation and transpiration
- 2015 Prof. Jeff McDonnell, University of Saskatchewan, Canada: Watershed evolution under climate change and human activities
- 2014 Prof. Dara Entekhabi, MIT, USA: Earth observations and hydrology
- 2013 Prof. Guenther Bloeschl, TU Vienna, Austria: Floods and climate change
- 2012 Prof. Dani Or, ETH Zurich, Switzerland: Microhydrological controls of life in the subsurface
- 2011 Prof. Peter Troch, University of Arizona, USA: Catchment science: ecohydrology and organisation
- 2010 Prof. Petra Doell, University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Large-scale hydrology
- 2009 Prof. Witold Krajewski, University of Iowa, USA: Advances in hydrometry
- 2008 Prof. Andrea Rinaldo, Ecole Polytechnique Fèdèrale (EPFL) Lausanne, Switzerland: Connections between hydrology, river morphology and ecosystems
- 2007 Prof. Jim Shuttleworth, University of Arizona, USA: The global hydrological cycle: feedbacks between land cover and climate
- 2006 Prof. Jacob Bear, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel: 150 years of Darcy
- 2005 Prof. Rafael Bras, MIT, USA: Frontiers in Hydrological Research: Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems
- 2004 Prof. Denis Lettenmaier, University of Washington, USA