As part-time Texas Water Resources Institute associate director for engineering, Dr. Ralph Wurbs, a professor in Texas A&M University’s Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, assists in working with funding agencies, research beneficiaries, university researchers, and administrators. His responsibilities focus on facilitating connections between research sponsors and Texas Engineering Experiment Station researchers and helping coordinate water-related initiatives and endeavors across the Texas A&M University System.

Wurbs is the developer of the Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP). which is the generalized model for simulating river/reservoir system management incorporated in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Water Availability Modeling (WAM) System. The continually expanding WRAP/WAM system is extensively applied in support of administration of the statewide water rights permit system and regional and statewide planning.

Wurbs joined the Zachry Civil Engineering Department in 1980 and served as division head for the department's Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Division from 1999 to 2007. He received a bachelor's from Texas A&M University, a master's from The University of Texas at Arlington, and a doctorate from Colorado State University, all in civil engineering.