PROFILE: Professor John Langford
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 23
11 - 25 December 2006 ] By Paul Richiardi
Professor John Langford, a leader in urban and rural water management reform, joined the University of Melbourne in November 2003 as inaugural Director of the University’s Melbourne Water Research Centre.
Professor John Langford, a leader in urban and rural water management reform, joined the University of Melbourne in November 2003 as inaugural Director of the University’s Melbourne Water Research Centre.
He brings to the University a career expertise in the water industry spanning more than three decades, along with a deep affection for the natural environment and a desire to see it used sustainably.
Professor Langford chose water as a career field because, he says, it is one where it is possible to make a strategic contribution. Internationally recognised for his expertise in water resource and catchment management and urban and irrigation water supply and research management, he plays a prominent role in the wider water debate, including speaking at major internationally sponsored forums.
In 2004 the inaugural Engineers Australia listing of Australia’s 100 most influential engineers included Professor Langford (along with fellow Melbourne colleagues Professor David Boger, Professor Rod Tucker and Professor Jannie van Deventer).
Professor Langford chaired the Boards of the highly successful Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology (in which the University was a core partner) and the CRC for Freshwater Ecology for more than a decade, and also the Advisory Board of Sydney University’s Special Research Centre on the Environmental Impact of Coastal Cities during it’s nine-year life. Currently he is chair of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre.
From 1994 to 2003 he was inaugural Executive Director of the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), the peak body of the Australian urban water industry, and was Managing Director of the Rural Water Corporation, Victoria’s state-wide irrigation and rural water authority, from 1989 to 1994.
Among his career highlights Professor Langford notes helping to build the WSAA from its conception into an industry association with 28 members servicing 14.5 million people in Australia and New Zealand.
He sees launching the Melbourne Water Research Centre as a significant achievement, having started with nothing and raised $6 in research grants for every $1 invested by the University to create a portfolio of $7m of multi-disciplinary outcome-focused water research across the University.
A Melbourne graduate (BEAgr 1967, PhDEng 1972) he is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a recipient of the Peter Hughes Award for his contribution to the Australian water industry, the 2003 Centenary Medal and the Order of Australia (2005).
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