Prof. Dr. Robert Boes

Prof. Dr.  Robert Boes

Prof. Dr. Robert Boes

Head of Lab. Hydraulics,Hydrology,Glaciology

ETH Zürich

V. Wasserbau, Hydrologie u. Glaz.

HIA C 57

Hönggerbergring 26

8093 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

His research interests include hydraulic and operational aspects in hydraulic engineering, flood protection and hydropower, especially air-water flows, dam hydraulics, hydroabrasion, reservoir sedimentation and issues related to the connectivity of bodies of water, with a focus on fish migration, and impulse waves.

Robert Boes has been Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering since February 2009.

He was born in Aachen, Germany in 1969.

Robert Boes studied civil engineering at RWTH Aachen, the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and the Technical University Munich. After his diploma in 1996, he joined ETH Zurich’s VAW as a scientist. He completed a doctorate with an experimental thesis on the hydraulics of stepped spillways in 2000, for which he received the Exchange Award for Excellent Young Scientists. As a result, he enjoyed a brief stint at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2001.

After a period as a postdoc at VAW, Robert Boes accepted a position in the Civil Engineering Department at the TIWAG-Tiroler Wasserkraft AG in Innsbruck, Austria, where he was in charge of interdisciplinary projects in the field of hydraulic engineering, hydropower and flood protection. In 2007, he became head of the Dam Construction Group.

Robert Boes is involved as a consultant in dam and flood protection projects in Switzerland and abroad and is a board member of the Swiss Association of Water Resources Management and the Swiss Committee on Dams.

Membership

Honours

Year Distinction
2023 Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize
2022 Golden Owl

Course Catalogue

Spring Semester 2024

Number Unit
101-0206-00L Hydraulic Engineering
101-0278-00L Flood Protection

Committees and Commissions

  • Swiss Association for Water Resources Management (SWV), Commission on Flood Protection (KOHS)
  • Swiss National Committee on Dams (STK), Technical Commission (TK)
  • STK, head of working group on floating debris at spillways
  • Internationale Rheinregulierung (IRR), Alpine Rhine flood protection project, member of expert group
  • Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), Dam Safety Section, member of core group for the revision of dam safety guidelines
  • Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), member of steering committee of the interdisciplinary research program on river management
  • ETH Zurich, Energy Science Center (ESC), Managing Board member
  • Lombardi Engineering Foundation, Council member
  • Editorial Board of WasserWirtschaft (German Journal for Water Resources Management)
  • Editorial Board of Dam Engineering
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