Rafael Luis Bras (born 1950) is a Puerto Rican civil engineer best known for his contributions in surface hydrology and hydrometeorology, including his work in soil-vegetation-atmosphere system modeling. Bras served as the provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2020 with faculty appointments in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and continues to be a professor at Georgia Tech.

Education

A native of Puerto Rico, graduated from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. Bras studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor's (1972), a master's in civil engineering (1974), and a science doctorate in water resources and hydrology (1975).

Career

On completion of his doctorate, Bras worked for a time as an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico school of engineering. Bras returned to MIT in July 1976, where he served for more than 32 years as a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and held an appointment in the Departments of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He is a past chair of the MIT faculty, former head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, and director of the Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory at MIT. On April 24, 2008, Bras was appointed as Dean of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, effective September 1, 2008. On July 15, 2010, Bras was named provost of the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 2010 to 2020, Bras was a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the Schools of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences On January 22, 2020, Bras announced plans to step down as provost and remain a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He officially stepped down on October 1, 2020 and continues to be a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Research

As an engineering hydrologist, Bras' major areas of interest include land-atmosphere interactions and geomorphology. With the goal of "coherent understanding of the global water cycle", Bras and Peter S. Eagleson at MIT led scientists to rethink the role of water as an essential component of Earth systems. Bras' books Random functions and hydrology (1985) and Hydrology : an introduction to hydrologic science (1990) are considered foundational publications in hydrologic sciences, combining traditional land hydrology with atmospheric science, ecology, geology, and geomorphology. Bras has integrated probability and statistics into hydrology to improve forecasting and risk estimation. By examining the interactions of precipitation, runoff, and soil moisture, he has improved river-flow forecasting and flood estimation. Remote sensing, satellite data, and information technology can now be used to support distributed hydrologic modeling and the global mapping of water in near to real time. Bras has developed models of the structure and evolution of river basins in terms of their fractal organization and geometry. His work enables researchers to better understand erosional development on hillslopes and channels within catchments. Mass transport processes modelled include fluvial sedimentation, creep, rainsplash and landslides. In his work in ecohydrology, Bras tries to integrate information about the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. He seeks to quantify the ways in which plants affect and are affected by hydrologic and energy cycles in the environment. With Elfatih Eltahir he examined the role of precipitation recycling on the atmospheric branch of the water cycle of the Amazon River basin, and showed that deforestation can have serious impacts on climate. Bras is considered a leading authority on soil-vegetation-atmosphere system modelling and the evolution of landscapes due to climatic disturbances including global warming. Bras is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information in Ecology/Environment, Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in several states. He has served as a professional consultant in multiple projects around the world. Beginning in 1995 Bras chaired an international panel for oversight of a system of barriers for the flood protection of Venice, Italy.

Honors and awards

Selected works