2026
CYWater Young Scientist Best Paper Award 2026
Apply for the 2026 CYWater Young Scientist Best Paper Award by November 20, 2026.
Recognition
Young Scientist Best Paper Award.
CYWater established the Young Scientist Best Paper Award in 2012. It is awarded annually to an individual for outstanding contributions to water sciences.
Applications and selection
Current award cycle.
2012–2025
Award yearbook.
Each yearbook entry below identifies the Best Paper Award and, where applicable, Outstanding Papers.
2025
Best Paper Award
Jiaojiao Gou
Warming climate and water withdrawals threaten river flow connectivity in China
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.2421046122
Outstanding Papers
Bo Xu & Zhanwei Liu
Strategizing Renewable Energy Transitions to Preserve Sediment Transport Integrity
Nature Sustainability doi: 10.1038/s41893-025-01626-5
Yuanlin Qiu
Enhanced heating effect of lakes under global warming
Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59291-3
2024
Best Paper Award
Juntai Han & Ziwei Liu
Streamflow seasonality in a snow-dwindling world
Nature
Outstanding Papers
Xinyue Liu
Unveiling the role of climate in spatially synchronized locust outbreak risks
Science Advances
Chenge An
Autogenic formation of bimodal grain size distributions in rivers
Geophysical Research Letters
2023
Best Paper Award
Laibao Liu
Increasingly negative tropical water–interannual CO₂ growth rate coupling
Nature
Outstanding Papers
Wei Zhi
Widespread deoxygenation in warming rivers
Nature Climate Change
Zexi Shen
Oceanic climate changes threaten the sustainability of Asia's water tower
Nature
2022
Best Paper Award
Shulei Zhang
Reconciling disagreement on global river flood changes in a warming climate
Nature Climate Change
Outstanding Papers
Xueying Li
Climate change threatens terrestrial water storage over the Tibetan Plateau
Nature Climate Change
Yue Qin
Snowmelt risk telecouplings for irrigated agriculture
Nature Climate Change
2021
Best Paper Award
Maofeng Liu
Enhanced hydrological cycle increases ocean heat uptake and moderates transient climate change
Nature Climate Change
Outstanding Papers
Zhiping Ai
Global bioenergy with carbon capture and storage potential is largely constrained by sustainable irrigation
Nature Sustainability
Xiaogang He
Climate-informed hydrologic modeling and policy topology to guide managed aquifer recharge
Science Advances
2020
Best Paper Award
Xingying Huang
Future precipitation increase from very high resolution ensemble downscaling of extreme atmospheric river storms in California
Science Advances
Outstanding Papers
Sha Zhou
Soil moisture–atmosphere feedbacks mitigate declining water availability in drylands
Nature Climate Change
Chong Zhang
The Effectiveness of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project on Water Delivery and Groundwater Recovery
Water Resources Research
Qi Huang
Using Remote Sensing Data-Based Hydrological Model Calibrations for Predicting Runoff in Ungauged Catchments
Water Resources Research
Award ceremony
CYWater Best Paper Award Ceremony — Online 2020
The 2020 Best Paper Award Ceremony was held online, with the recognized authors presenting their work. View details2019
Best Paper Award
Hongbo Ma
Universal relation with regime transition for sediment transport in fine-grained rivers
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Outstanding Papers
Xiaogang He
Solar and wind energy enhances drought resilience and groundwater sustainability
Nature Communications
Mengfei Mu
A water-electricity nexus model to analyze thermoelectricity supply reliability under environmental regulations and economic penalties during drought events
Environmental Modelling & Software
2018
Best Paper Award
Qi Huang
Discharge estimation in high-mountain regions with improved methods using multisource remote sensing: A case study of the Upper Brahmaputra River
Remote Sensing of Environment
Outstanding Papers
Hongxiang Yan
Next-Generation Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves for Hydrologic Design in Snow-Dominated Environments
Water Resources Research
Qiaohong Sun
A review of global precipitation datasets: data sources, estimation, and intercomparisons
Reviews of Geophysics
2017
The 2017 award citation is pending confirmation in the supplied records.
2016
Best Paper Award
Yujin Zeng, Zhenghui Xie & Jing Zhou
Hydrologic and Climatic Responses to Global Anthropogenic Groundwater Extraction
2015
Best Paper Award
Dongqin Yin, Michael L. Roderick, Guy Leech, Fubao Sun & Yuefei Huang
The contribution of reduction in evaporative cooling to higher surface air temperatures during drought
2014
Best Paper Award
Lishan Ran, X. X. Lu & Z. Xin
Erosion-induced massive organic carbon burial and carbon emission in the Yellow River basin, China
2013
Best Paper Award
Laifang Li, Wenhong Li & Yochanan Kushnir
Variation of the North Atlantic subtropical high western ridge and its implication to Southeastern US summer precipitation
2012
Best Paper Award
Huimin Lei, Dawen Yang, Jianfeng Cai & Fengjiao Wang
Long-term variability of the carbon balance in a large irrigated area along the lower Yellow River from 1984 to 2006