faculty.Ana Barros

Ana Barros, Professor

Professor Ana Barros was born in Africa, grew up in Angola and Portugal, and has lived almost all of her adult life in the United States. She attended the Faculty of Engineering of the University of O’Porto where she obtained a summa cum laude Diploma in Civil Engineering with majors in Structures and Hydraulics in 1985, and a M.Sc. degree in Ocean Engineering in 1988 with a thesis focusing on numerical modeling of sediment transport in estuaries and coastal regions. In 1990, Dr. Barros completed and M.Sc. degree in Environmental Science Engineering at the OHSU/OGI School of Science and Engineering. She earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1993. Her graduate studies were supported in part by fellowships from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/JNICT), and NASA’s Graduate Fellowship program.

Dr. Barros was in the engineering faculty at the University of O’Porto, Penn State University, and Harvard University before joining Duke University in 2004. Her primary research interests are in Hydrology, Hydrometeorology and Environmental Physics with a focus on water-cycle processes in the coupled land-atmosphere-biosphere system particularly in regions of complex terrain, the study of multiscale interface phenomena in complex environments across the Earth Sciences, remote sensing of the environment (precipitation, clouds, soil moisture,and vegetation), climate predictability and risk assessment of natural hazards. Prof. Barros is especially proud of having involved dozens of students in undergraduate research, a great majority of which continued their studies to earn graduate degrees in science and engineering.

Dr. Barros is a member of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council, and she serves or served in committees of the Water Science and Technology Board and the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate over the last decade. She is a member of the Council of the American Meteorological Society, and serves in several committees within the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. She serves in the editorial boards of the Journal of Hydrology and Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Science, and is a member of the NOAA’s Climate and Global Change Working group among other working groups at NASA and NSF. Dr. Barros is also a member of the ASCE , ASEE, AAAS, EGS and AWRA.

Education

• Ph.D. Civil Engineering (Major in Hydrology, Minor in Atmospheric Sciences), University of Washington, Seattle, 1993
• M.Sc. Environmental Science and Engineering, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, 1990
• M.Sc. Hydraulics - Ocean Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, 1988
• Diploma Civil Engineering (5-year degree), University of Porto, Portugal, 1985

Professional Experience

• Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University (2004-Present)
• Visiting Scholar, Harvard University (2004-Present)
• Associate Professor, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University (1999-2003)
• Adjunct Visiting Professor of Meteorology, Florida State University (2003)
• Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University (with tenure) (1998-1999)
• Faculty Affiliate Earth System Science Center, Penn State University, Environmental Resources Institute, Penn State University (1993-1999)
• Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University (1993-1995)
• Research Assistant, Civil Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle (1990-1993)
• Research Assistant, Environmental Science & Engineering, Oregon Graduate Institute (1987-1990)
• Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Porto (1985-1987)
• Research Associate, Institute of Hydraulics and Water Resources (1985-1987)

Current Publications [complete publication list]

• Bushan*, S., and Barros, A.P., 2006: A Numerical Study to Investigate the Relationship Between Moisture Convergence Patterns and the Spatial Distribution of Orographic Precipitation Features from TRMM in Central Mexico. J. of Hydrometeorology, accepted.
• Pratt*, O., and Barros, A.P., 2006: Exploring the use of a column model for the characterization of microphysical processes in warm rain: preliminary results for a homogeneous rainshaft model. Advances in Geosciences, accepted pending minor revisions.
• Pratt*, O., and Barros, A.P., 2006: A Robust Solution for the Stochastic Collection-Breakup Equation in Warm Rain. J. Applied Meteorology, accepted with minor revisions.
• Simoes, S., and Barros, A.P., 2006: Regional Hydroclimatic Variability and Brazil's 2001 Energy Crisis. Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 18(3), in press.
• Testik*, F., and Barros, A.P., 2006: Towards Elucidating the Microstructure of Warm Rainfall: A Survey. Reviews of Geophysics, in press.

Honors and Awards

• George W. Merck Faculty Fellowship, Harvard University, 1999
• NASA New Investigator Award- MTPE, 1996
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 1995
• Lorenz G. Straub Award, 1993
• EOS Global Climate Change Fellowship, NASA, 1990/1993
• Science Program Scholarship, JNICT, 1990/1993
• Prize Foundation A. Almeida, 1985

Professional and Service Activities

• NRC, Committee to Assess Flash Flodd Forecasting Capabilities at Sulphur Mountain, CA, 2004-Present
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program, Civil and Environmental Engineering Panel, 2004-Present
• Ad-Hoc NRC-NOAA Committee on Public and Private Partnerships, 2003-Present
• AMS, Annual Meeting Program Committee, Symposium on Water Scarcity, 2004-2005
• AGU, GRL Editor Search Committee, 2003-2004
• NRC, Space Studies Board, 2002-2005
• European Union Research Commission, Science Selection Panel - FP6, 2003-Present
• NASA - Precipitation Measurement Mission, Science Panel, 2003
• Elected Council Member, American Meteorological Society, 2002-2005
• Cambridge Public Schools - Science Advisory Committee, 2002-Present
• Scientific Editor, Meteorology and Hydrology, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2000-Present
• Associate Editor, Journal of Hydrology , 2000-Present
• NOAA-OGP Reanalysis Advisory Panel, 2000-Present
• NASA - Earth System Satellite Program, Science Selection Panel, 2001-2002
• Executive Committee, CUASHI, 2001
• Chair, 7th International Precipitation Conference, 1998-2001
• Earth Interactions, Editorial Advisory Panel, 1997-Present
• NOAA, Global and Climate Change Advisory Panel , 1997-Present
• NRC, USGS Committee on Water Resources, 1996-2001
• Precipitation Committee, AGU, 1993-Present
• Hydrology Committee, AMS, 1995-1998, 2000-Present
• Program Committee - 13th Conference on Hydrology, 77th Annual Meeting AMS, February 1997
• NASA Global Water and Energy Cycle Initiative Science Plan Working Group, 2001-Present
• NASA Soil Moisture Working Group, 1999-Present
• NSF CMS-CAREER Assessment Committee, 1997-1998
• AWRA Board Pennsylvania, 1994-1996; President, 1995

Professional Society Memberships

• Portuguese Order of Engineers, 1986 - (Professional Civil Engineer Registration No 20807)
• American Geophysical Union, 1987
• Chi Epsilon, 1991
• American Meteorological Society, 1991
• European Geophysical Union, 1992
• American Society for Engineering Education, 1993
• American Water Resources Association, 1994
• American Society of Civil Engineers, 1994; Professional Grade Member, 2000
• American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1997

Current and Ongoing Research

• Orographic precipitation processes
• Quantitative precipitation forecasting
• Hydrology of mountainous areas
• Regional aspects of global change and climate variability
• Scaling issues in hydrology
• Land-atmosphere interactions
• Soils-vegetation-hydrology interactions in land-margin environments
• Remote-sensing (retrieval algorithms and data assimilation)
• Environmental fluid mechanics
• Sediment mobility and transport in rivers, estuaries, and contributing watersheds
• Hydrology of floods and droughts and the predictability of hydrologic extremes
• Environmental Systems and Risk Analysis
• Non-Linear Dynamics
• Neural Networks