John Briscoe

John Briscoe (July 30, 1948 – November 12, 2014) was a South African-born environmental engineer who was Visiting Professor of the Practice of Environmental Health in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health. He was known as "Mr. Water" to environmental economists. At Harvard, Briscoe also held appointments at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) as Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering, and at the Harvard Kennedy School. His career focused on efforts on the developing world to successfully manage and preserve water as a precious resource. In early 2014, he received the Stockholm Water Prize - the “Nobel Prize of Water" - for "unparalleled contributions to global and local management of water - contributions covering vast thematic, geographic, and institutional environments-that have improved the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.” He spoke English, Afrikaans, Bengali, Portuguese, and Spanish. Chronology 1948 - Born in South Africa 1969 - B.Sc., Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 1976 - Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Harvard University Government water agencies of South Africa and Mozambique, Engineer Cholera Research Center, now ICDDR,B, Bangladesh, Epidemiologist University of North Carolina, Professor of Water Resources 1989-2009 - World Bank (20 years): He helped oversee projects in water resources, irrigation, hydropower, and sanitation at the World Bank and consulted on water issues for nonprofits, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses 1989-2009 - World Bank, country director for Brazil: Briscoe’s role in affecting the evolution of the World Bank was the subject of Chapter 13 in Sebastian Mallaby’s definitive history, “The World’s Banker,” Penguin 2006. 2009-2014 - Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 2014 - Stockholm Water Prize - "Nobel Prize of Water” Early life John Briscoe was born in, and grew up in, South Africa. His mother Thelma ran a day-care center and orphanage in the black township of Soweto. His nation's extremes of poverty and wealth were seen in the social and ecological landscape, the lush coastal regions contrasted with the dry but economically important interior, where massive mineral mining operations were carried out.