ASCE has honored Ana P. Barros, Ph.D., P.E., BC.WRE, NAE, F.ASCE, with the 2024 Ven Te Chow Award for exceptional contributions in advancing the understanding and prediction of precipitation dynamics and flood hazards in mountainous terrains and for outstanding leadership across diverse civil engineering subjects such as remote sensing, earth science, and water resources engineering.
Barros is an internationally prominent leader in interdisciplinary research at the boundaries of hydrology, hydrometeorology, and environmental physics with a focus on water-cycle processes in the coupled land-atmosphere-biosphere system in regions of complex terrain. She is also well-known for applying her research to water resources engineering, with a focus on flood hazard prediction. Her broad research experiences, novel systems approach, and foresight of large-scale environmental issues have made her an outstanding leader in both earth science and water resources engineering areas.
Specifically, Barros works on overarching grand challenges of ensuring water security and environmental sustainability in an era of human impacts on climate, environment, and landscape. This is a central challenge that has motivated researchers in both hydrologic science and engineering areas. Her quantitative approaches utilizing multi-scale observations, satellite remote sensing, data, and computational science have also generated new synergistic collaborations crossing multiple disciplines. Moreover, Barros is a highly decorated and well-known visionary leader, recognized with numerous prestigious awards including fellow of ASCE, the American Meteorologic Society, American Geophysical Union, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2019, she was honored with election to the National Academy of Engineering. Barros’ core research includes modeling of atmospheric turbulence and 3D multiscale physics of moist processes, remote sensing, and hydrometeorology.
Established in 1995, the Ven Te Chow Award recognizes individuals whose lifetime achievements in the field of hydrologic engineering have been distinguished by exceptional achievement and significant contributions in research, education, or practice.
