Humberto Vergara Arrieta, PhD
Professor Humberto Vergara is a research engineer at IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering in the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. He is also a faculty research engineer at the Iowa Flood Center providing expertise in hydrologic modeling with a focus on river-flood and flash-flood forecasting. In his previous role as a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO), Dr. Vergara was the lead software architect in the design and development of the Flooded Locations and Simulated Hydrographs project (FLASH), a cyberinfrastructure-based forecasting system for flash flood guidance, which he helped transition to daily operational use at the National Weather Service. He currently leads the hydrologic modeling development for a flash flood forecasting system for the West Africa region and conducts research to understand flash flood predictability globally.