The Third GRIPS SDGs Award Winner Announced!

SDGs are high on the GRIPS agenda and to promote innovative efforts by alumni towards solving the most pressing environmental, social and economic challenges of our time, the GRIPS SDGs Awards were launched in 2019.

GRIPS received many applications for the Third GRIPS SDGs Award from alumni in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America and we are excited to announce that the winner of the Third GRIPS SDGs Award contest is Mr. Mohammad Faiz Syed. Mr. Syed, who hails from India, completed Disaster Management Policy Program at GRIPS in 2015.

We want to send a big thank you to everyone who participated in our contest and helped make it a success! And a special congratulations to Mr. Syed!

Mr. Syed will present his project at a special online GRIPS Forum on June 20^th, 2022.

Winner’s Profile

Mr. Mohammad Faiz Syed, a mechanical engineering graduate, joined the Central Water Commission, a high level Indian government technical organization, in 2007, after being ranked 13th in the Indian Engineering Services (IES). He is keenly interested in the water sector and has been serving in various key positions in rivers and flood management in India. Mr. Syed received a master’s degree in disaster management from GRIPS in 2015 and received the Best Researcher Award at that time. He is currently Superintending Engineer in the North East region of the country, where he plays a key role in the development of the water sector, primarily overseeing surveys, investigations, and the monitoring and appraisal of various irrigation projects in the states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam.

Role in the Winning Award Project

Mr. Syed was one of the lead members in the development and operation of India’s 3-Day Advisory Flood Forecast system, this year’s winning award project. As Deputy Director for the project, he was a key actor under the guidance of his director, contributing mainly to the development of hydrological models; the automatic integration of global rainfall data into those models; and automation of the entire system.  He was also involved in the development of the GIS portal through which the results of the system are disseminated.  

Mr. Syed got immense professional benefit from the training at ICHARM in Tsukuba, Japan, and from his studies in the GRIPS Masters in Disaster Management Programe (2014–15). The ICHARM training both widened his perspective on floods and flood risk and vulnerabilities and enabled him to acquire skills and tools which were of great value in his work to develop this project.

Read more for the winning award project…