Dr. Eric Wolanski is a coastal oceanographer and ecohydrologist. Eric has more than 330 scientific papers and seven book. Eric is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Institution of Engineers Australia, and l'Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer. He was awarded the 1^st ECSA LifeTime Achievement award, an Australian Centenary medal for services in estuarine and coastal oceanography, a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Catholic University of Louvain, and a Queensland Information Technology and Telecommunication award for excellence.