Paola Passalacqua

Paola Passalacqua is Professor of Hydrology and River System Science at ETH Zürich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. Prior to joining ETH in 2025, she was a Professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also held a courtesy appointment in Earth and Planetary Sciences. She earned her BS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Genoa (2002) and her MS (2005) and PhD (2009) in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, where she also completed her postdoctoral research as part of the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics.
Her research lies at the intersection of water resources engineering, geomorphology, and hydrology. Specifically, she explores transport processes in river and delta networks, with emphasis on flooding, river–floodplain connectivity, and coastal resilience. She is a member of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission Science Team, leading research on predicting the partitioning of water, sediment, and solutes on global river deltas. She has also led major interdisciplinary efforts, including SETx-UIFL, a U.S. Department of Energy Urban Integrated Field Laboratory addressing compounding risks of flooding and air pollution in Southeast Texas to support the development of equitable adaptation strategies. Passalacqua has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and received numerous honors, including the Ralph Alger Bagnold Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2022).