András Szöllösi-Nagy was born in Budapest in 1949. He graduated as a civil engineer from the Budapest University of Technology in 1972, where he also obtained his doctorate (Dr.Techn.) in Hydrology and Mathematical Statistics in 1975 and joined the Water Resources Research Center (VITUKI) the same year. Between 1974 and 1976, he was a research cholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, firstly, working on the water project and, later, in the field of environmental research, mainly on time series analysis and real-time forecasting and control of water resources systems using recursive algorithms. In the course of his career, he has travelled extensively and worked in several different countries: for a short period with IBM in Italy; in 1981, as a visiting professor at the University of Lulea in Sweden; and in 1983 and 1984, as a lecturer on computerized hydrological forecasting at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. He also served as WMO consultant on hydrological forecasting in Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia.
Mr Szöllösi-Nagy lectured regularly on hydrological modelling at the UNESCO-sponsored postgraduate courses in Budapest, Belgrade and Delft and taught statistical hydrology at the Eötvös Loránd University. Between 1985 and 1989, he was a regular visiting research professor at the Systems Engineering Department of the University of Waterloo, Canada. From 1985 until he joined UNESCO in 1989, he was Deputy Director-General of the Water Resources Research Center (VITUKI) in Budapest. He was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a Dr. habil. degree by the Budapest University of Technology in 1991 and was a Prof. HC at the same university in 1992 and became full Professor in 1994.
Between 1986 and 1989, he was founding Editor, together with Prof T.E. Unny, of the International Journal of Stochastic Hydrology and Hydraulics (Springer), Editor-in-Chief of the Hidrologiai Kozlony, and a member of the editorial board of Vizugyi Kozlemenyek. He presently serves on the editorial board of Water Resources Management (Reidel), the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, Water Policy (Elsevier) and the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). He has published more than 150 technical papers and several books.
Mr Szöllösi-Nagy served as a member of various Committees of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), International Association for Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR), International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP). He was Vice-President of ICWS/IAHS, Chairman of the Hungarian IAHS Committee, Chairman of the Hungarian WMO/HOMS National Reference Center and Executive Secretary of the 2nd IAHS Scientific Assembly held in Budapest in 1986. Between 1997 and 1999, he was a member (1997-1999) of the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership and, from 1996 to 1998, Chairman of the UN/ACC Sub-Committee on Water Resources. He is an Honorary Member of the American Water Resources Association, Ven-Te-Chow Lecturer and Chester C. Kisiel Lecturer at the University of Arizona, Tucson, member of the Board of Governors of the World Water Council and Chairman of its Publication Committee, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Council of ICSU/SCOPE/EGIS. He was recently elected member of the International Water Academy, Norway.
He joined UNESCO in 1989 as Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme. As of October 2000, he also serves as Co-ordinator of UNESCO's environmental programmes (IHP, IOC, IGCP, MAB and MOST) and is the Deputy Assistant Director-General of the Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO.