The Stephen E. Coleman Best Paper Award is granted biennially for the best paper submitted to the River Flow Conference Series and authored or co-authored by a young researcher. This award was established by the IAHR technical committee on Fluvial Hydraulics in September 2014, in memory of Prof. Stephen E. Coleman (1966–2012).

The Stephen E. Coleman Best Paper Award is given biennially for the best paper submitted to the River Flow Conference Series and authored or co-authored by a young researcher*. This award was established by the IAHR Fluvial Hydraulics Committee in September 2014, in memory of Prof. Stephen E. Coleman (1966–2012). 

Prof. Coleman is remembered for his outstanding and original contributions to fundamental and applied research in the fields of river mechanics and environmental fluid mechanics and his devotion and enthusiasm in the training of the new generations of hydraulic engineers and scientists. 

The conditions for applying to Stephen E. Coleman Best Paper Award: (i) the first author of the paper is a young researcher* who will present it orally at River Flow conference; (ii) the young researcher applied to the award when submitting the paper; (iii) the submitted paper should be a full paper or an extended abstract of at least four (4) pages. The selection of the best paper was done by the Stephen E. Coleman Award Committee composed by members of the (Leadership Team of the) IAHR FHC. 

* a young researcher is defined as a M.Sc. or Ph.D. student or a researcher who has completed his/her Ph.D. no more than three years before the date of the conference in which the award will be given. The time used for parental leaves is not counted for the definition of young researcher.

Coleman Award Committee

A. Paquier (France)

J. F. Rodriguez (Australia)

K. Koll (Germany)

R. Ferreira (Portugal)

A. M. da Silva (Canada)

All the members from the IAHR committee on Fluvial Hydraulics contributed to the reviewing of the 110 papers from authors who applied for the award.

2020: Emelin Perret