Honorary Member

One or more Honorary Members may be selected each year by the Academy's Board of Trustees by affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of its members. The individual so honored possesses one or more of the following characteristics:

• has attained a position of eminence in the field of environmental and/or human health protection;
• has made a single noteworthy contribution or sustained contribution to the advancement of environmental and/or human health protection; or
• has rendered outstanding service over a long period of time resulting in the advancement of the affairs of the Academy.

Click here for the full criteria and nomination forms.

2025 Honorary Member

Tissa H. Illangasekare, Ph.D., PE, P.Hyd, BCEE, DWRE

Dr. Illangasekare is a Staff Scientist at the Energy Geosciences Division of the Earth within the Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also serves as affiliated research faculty at the Colorado School of Mines, where until 2024 held the AMAX Endowed Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and directed the Center for Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes. He earned his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1978.

An internationally recognized leader in flow and transport in porous media, Dr. Illangasekare specializes in groundwater flow, contamination, remediation engineering, and environmental and hydrologic modeling. He holds BCEE certification through eminence and has been honored for both his scientific contributions and practical impacts on environmental engineering and contaminant hydrology. He is a fellow of several prestigious organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Geophysical Union (AGU), Soil Science Society of America (SSA), and the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka (SLNAS), and he is a foreign member of the Academy of Europe.

Dr. Illangasekare is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the European Geological Union’s 2012 Darcy Medal, the 2016 Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Groundwater Prize, and the AGU Langbein Lecture Award for lifetime contributions to hydrologic sciences. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology from Uppsala University in Sweden. Currently, he serves as an editor for AGU Advances, AGU Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, and as Specialty Chief Editor of Water and Human Health for Frontiers in Water.

Past Recipients

Click the table header to sort the table.