Larisa Tarasova
HS Hydrological Sciences
The 2026 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Larisa Tarasova for outstanding research on comparative catchment hydrology and flood generation processes.
Larisa Tarasova has made exceptional contributions to hydrological science by combining process understanding with advanced data-driven methods. During her doctoral studies, she developed automated approaches for identifying and classifying flood events, producing a series of influential publications. These methods opened new possibilities for comparing how rivers respond to rainfall across hundreds of catchments and revealed key landscape factors that control this variability. As a postdoctoral researcher, Tarasova advanced the study of how changes in flood-generating processes influence extreme events. She has been among the first to explore the potential of deep learning and explainable artificial intelligence for water extremes, demonstrating how such approaches can improve predictions while yielding insights relevant for practice.
Since 2023, she has been leading a research group on watershed dynamics and hydrological extremes. This group integrates physical understanding with modern data science to improve predictions of floods, droughts, and water quality challenges. Her recently funded projects seek to link the science of hazards with that of impacts, paving the way for more effective adaptation strategies. Tarasova has also shown strong leadership within the scientific community. She coordinates a doctoral graduate school, fosters diversity and inclusion in her international team, and provides committed mentorship to other Early Career Scientists. She is actively engaged in the European Geosciences Union, convening sessions and delivering invited talks at the Gneeral Assembly, and serving as a journal editor.
Through her innovative research, leadership, and community service, Tarasova has emerged as a leading figure of her generation. All of this makes Larisa Tarasova an outstanding Early Career Scientist, and a worthy recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award of the Hydrological Sciences Division for 2026.