Overview
- The Stockholm Water Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his "groundbreaking" work integrating water management with policy, diplomacy and global outreach under personal risk.
- Madani currently directs the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Ontario.
- The award will be presented in August by H. M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
- His scholarship includes applying game theory to water governance, coining "water bankruptcy," and co-authoring the 2026 UN report declaring a Global Water Bankruptcy era.
- A former senior Iranian environment official, he was detained and questioned by the IRGC, labeled a "water terrorist," and fled into exile in 2018 after arrests of environmentalists.