In a boost to Heriot-Watt University's rankings as a research university, two professors at the institution have been awarded prizes for papers written in their respective fields.

Professor Paul Jowitt, executive director of SISTech and professor of Civil Engineering Systems in Heriot-Watt’s School of the Built Environment, was awarded the 2008 International Water Association (IWA) biennial prize for a paper he co-wrote with a team from the Sustainable Water Industry Asset Resource Decisions project – rather more snappily named SWARD.

Judges at the World Water Congress and Exhibition in Vienna praised the paper, entitled Making Asset Investment Decisions for Wastewater Systems that Include Sustainability, for its incisive research into the tricky area of water resource management in urban environments.

Speaking after the announcement, Prof. Jowitt said: “It is becoming increasingly clear that sustainable development needs to be fully embedded in the economy, society and in the underpinning physical infrastructure which support them.”

He added: “It is not so long ago that sustainability was regarded with scepticism by many practitioners and academics alike. There may well be a few diehard sceptics left, but the direction for the future has now been set.”

Narrowly beating Prof. Jowitt in the academic stakes, however, Professor Andrew Cairns scooped up two awards, this time in the field of actuarial science. The academic, who is based in the university’s School of Mathematical and Computer Science, picked up the David Garrick Halmstad prize, awarded annually by the Actuarial Foundation.

Rumoured to be the most prestigious award in actuarial science, Prof. Cairns was rewarded for his 2006 paper, Pricing Death: Frameworks for the Valuation and Securitization of Mortality Risk.

Prof. Cairns was further honoured by the International Actuarial Association (IAA)—more accurately their arm for research into Actuarial Approaches for Financial Risks (AAFR)—who bestowed the Bob Alting von Geusau Prize for the same paper.

The paper, which sets out methods for calculating the risk implications of changing longevity for mortality-linked financial contracts such as pensions and insurance, has cemented Prof. Cairns’s position as a leading authority in the field, serving as an advisor to investment bank J.P. Morgan.

Indeed, Prof. Cairns’s paper has emerged as one of the most frequently cited papers in actuarial work over the past two years. Budding actuaries are advised to keep an eye out for Prof. Cairns's 2004 book Interest Rate Models: An Introduction. Library copies available.