Brighton Austin Chunga

Brighton Austin Chunga is a water resources management specialist with over 15 years of experience across research, practice, and academia. His work focuses on advancing sustainable and integrated water resources planning and management through interdisciplinary, evidence-based approaches in diverse environmental and socio-economic contexts.

Brighton has professional experience spanning the private sector, government, and academia. He has worked in irrigation and water resources engineering, public sector water management, and higher education, where he served as a senior lecturer and researcher in water resources modelling and management at Mzuzu University, Malawi. His research expertise includes hydrology and hydrogeology, system dynamics and hydrological modelling, groundwater development, irrigation engineering, GIS and geoinformatics, water reticulation systems, and water allocation under climate change.

He has held research and postdoctoral fellowships with leading institutions, including Stellenbosch University Water Institute, the Future Africa Institute at the University of Pretoria, and the University of South Africa’s Institute for Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship. With support from major international funders, Brighton has led and collaborated on multiple international research projects as Principal Investigator, working with partners across Africa, Europe, and North America. He is committed to mixed-method and interdisciplinary research, drawing on his engineering background alongside exposure to social science and management approaches to address complex, real-world water and development challenges. 

Brighton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Irrigation Engineering from the University of Malawi, a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering and Management from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and a Doctorate from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.