Keynote Speakers
Brian Bledsoe, PH.D, PE
UGS AA Professor in Resilient Infrastructure
Dr. Bledsoe has over 25 years of experience as an engineer, hydrologist, and environmental scientist in the private and public sectors. Before entering the professorate, he worked in the private sector as a consulting engineer and surveyor, and for the State of North Carolina as a watershed restoration specialist and state nonpoint source program coordinator. Brian’s research is focused on the interface of hydrology, ecology, and urban water sustainability with an emphasis on green infrastructure including streams, floodplains, and stormwater systems. He received an NSF CAREER Award in 2006, and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Chile in 2008.
Robert Mace, PH.D, PG
Executive Director & Chief Water Policy Officer
Robert Mace is the Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Robert has over 30 years of experience in hydrology, hydrogeology, stakeholder processes, and water policy, mostly in Texas.
Before joining Texas State University in 2017, Robert worked at the Texas Water Development Board for 17 years ending his career there as the Deputy Executive Administrator for the Water Science & Conservation office. While at the Board, Robert worked on understanding groundwater and surface water resources in Texas; advancing water conservation and innovative water technologies such as desalination, aquifer storage and recovery, reuse, and rainwater harvesting; and protecting Texans from floods. Prior to joining the Texas Water Development Board, Robert worked nine years at the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin as a hydrologist and research scientist.
Robert has a B.S. in Geophysics and an M.S. in Hydrology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and a Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Sam Atkinson is Former Director of the Advanced Environmental Research Institute, current Scholar in the same Institute, and is now Regents Professor of Environmental Science at the University of North Texas in Denton. His background is in biology and environmental science, and his research focuses on human-environment interactions at the ecosystem scale. His bachelor’s degree is in biology from Oklahoma State University, his master’s degree is in environmental science from the University of Oklahoma and his doctorate is in applied science and engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He worked as an environmental engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to starting his academic career the University of North Texas. He has authored or co-authored more than 120 scientific papers, technical reports, books, and book chapters. His research program has been funded by entities such as NASA, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Science Foundation, the Trinity River Authority, the Perot Group and many others. In 2012 he was appointed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Environmental Advisory Board, a part of the prestigious Army Science Board.
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