Professor Joan Rose has been named the 2026 recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize. The prestigious award, established in 2008 to honor Singapore’s first prime minister, recognizes individuals and organizations whose work has led to outstanding improvements in water technology, policy or management.
Rose, the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at MSU and director of the MSU Water Alliance, is being acknowledged for her work in developing and advancing Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, or QMRA, a now global framework used by scientists and policymakers to evaluate water safety.
“I always talk about it being a yardstick,” she said, discussing the methodology behind QMRA. “A yardstick of risk or safety.”
QMRA examines where microbes come from, how people are exposed to them and who is most at risk. It emerged during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the water industry largely reacted to disease outbreaks — particularly from emerging protozoa and viruses.
Alongside colleagues Charles Haas of Drexel University and Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona, Rose co-authored Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment in 1999, the first book on QMRA based on a grant she had championed. The framework has since been adopted by health and environmental agencies around the world, including the World Health Organization’s water quality guidelines.
Rose and Haas have worked to expand the use of QMRA, training researchers from the U.S. and Canada, as well as South America, Asia and across Europe through the QMRA Summer Institute since 2005. Today, key researchers have emerged in Brazil, China and Japan, and across utilities, government agencies, public health and academia worldwide.
“It’s been really fantastic to see the progression from when we first started to where it is now,” Rose said. “Today, people coming to the institute already know the framework and are bringing their own science — their own research.”
Rose will formally be presented with the 2026 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize during the opening ceremony of Singapore International Water Week in June, where she’ll be recognized with global leaders in the water sector.
Commenting on receiving the award, she said, “I am deeply honored. This recognition reflects our collective progress in advancing microbial risk science and its role in protecting public health.”
