Prof. Szolgay was born in Bratislava in former Czechoslovakia. He received his MSc at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava in 1976, a Diploma in Hydrology at the Lomonosow University Moscow in 1978 and concluded his studies with a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources Management at the Institute of Hydrology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1982. From 1982 to 1990 he was with the Institute of Hydrology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Since 1991 he is with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, where he leads the Department of Land and Water Resources Management. From 1999-2000 and 2011-2019 he also served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Engineering hydrology and water resources management were in the focus of his research interest ever since. His research experience includes river flow modelling and forecasting, the stochastic modelling of river flows, assessment of impacts of human influence and climate change on hydrological regimes and water resources management, hydrological mapping, modelling of water resources systems, at site and regional flood frequency analysis. In his research he has made profound and numerous contributions to regional hydrology and water resources management. As in most of his research, methods strike a fine balance between building on a process basis and engineering principles taking into account the sparse data in the Central European water resources setting. Prof. Szolgay gave lectures on Design Discharges at the International UNESCO Postgraduate Courses 'Data for Water Resources Planning' at the Prague Agricultural University and lectures on Hydrological Forecasting and Modelling at the UNESCO and WMO International Postgraduate Course on 'Hydrological Methods of Environmental Management' at VITUKI Budapest. He regularly lectured on Mathematical Models in Hydrology at the Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic and Comenius University in Bratislava. He was a Member of the working group 'Hydrology 2000' of the International Association for Scientific Hydrology (IAHS), 1983–1987. As a Regional Expert and Lead Author of the Third Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC TAR) he co-authored the chapter on Europe of the 3rd IPCC Assessment Report. He was a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Hydrological Sciences, Journal of Hydrology, Hydrology and Earths Systems Sciences, and currently serves the journals Water Resources Management, Journal of River Basin Management, and the Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics. He is the National Representative of the International Association of the Hydrological Sciences and National Correspondent for its Commission on Water Resources Management. He is active in shaping the Hydrology Division of the European Geophysical Union where he was Secretary of the Engineering Hydrology section, later the Chair of the Catchment Hydrology Technical Committee and recently served as Head of the Subdivision on Hydrological Forecasting, member and Chair of the Darcy Medal Committee. In 2008 and 2009 he was a member of the Panel of Experts of the EC for the evaluation of JRC direct actions in the 6th EU framework programmes. He is a senior advisor to the Slovak Ministry of Environment on Integrated River Basin Management, Management of Wetlands and advisor of the Ministry of Education on Environmental Education. He is a scientific advisor of the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Water Resources Management Institute and the Institute of Hydrology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. His educational and research achievements were honored by several awards. He became Honorary Professor of the Szechenyi Istvan University Hungary in 1999 and Honorary Member of the Hungarian Hydrological Society in 2000. He received the Oto Dub Medal of the SUT in 2003, became Professor of the year at SUT in 2007, Scientist of the year at the SUT in 2008, was awarded the Henry Darcy Medal by the European Geophysical Union in 2011, the Dionyz Stur Medal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 2013 and the Ludo Molnar Medal of the Slovak Committee for the International Hydrological Program of UNESCO in 2013. .