Wolfgang Kron

As a student of civil and hydraulic engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, Wolfgang Kron was concerned with the natural hazard of flood.

After an additional year of study at the University of California in Davis, he returned to the University of Karlsruhe, performing research and teaching there from 1983 to 1994. During this time he was concerned with the deterministic and stochastic modelling of hydrological and hydraulic processes and statistics.

He gained his doctorate with a study on the application of reliability theory to sediment transportation processes. When the UN proclaimed the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in 1990, he was appointed Secretary to the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Committee for Disaster Reduction, at first in Karlsruhe and then from 1994 for two years at the Geo Research Centre in Potsdam.

He joined the Geo Risks Research Department at Munich Re in 1996, being responsible since then for "everything to do with water" as the head of the section dealing with hydrological risks. He continues to take an active part in national and international committees addressing aspects of disaster reduction, water management, and science.