Washington: An Indian American professor of biological and agricultural engineering has been recognised by a top US environmental and water resources institute for his pioneering work in hydrology.

Vijay P Singh, professor and Caroline & William N Lehrer distinguished chair in the department of biological and agricultural engineering at Texas A&M University, was named a recipient of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers Environmental and Water Resources Institute (ASCE-EWRI).

Singh is an internationally recognised and pre-eminent engineer specialising in water resources engineering and hydrology.

His work has developed the application of kinematic wave theory to the point where it is widely used throughout the world in hydrologic models used for water resource modeling, flood planning and hydrologic design.

Earlier this year, Singh was appointed a university distinguished professor, according to the Texas A&M University, ranked as the sixth largest varsity in the US.

Singh is also a professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering and joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2006.

Born in Agra on July 15, 1946, Singh received his bachelor's of science in engineering from U P Agricultural University in 1967 and his master's in engineering from the University of Guelph, Canada in 1970.

He received his doctorate in civil engineering from Colorado State University in 1974 and doctorate of science from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa in 1998.

Singh has made numerous advances in hydrologic and environmental modelling and received prestigious awards for hydrology from multiple professional societies. He is a prolific author of journal articles and books.

Singh's work on entropy theory has given rise a new branch of hydrology, called entropic hydrology.