Professor Brad Murray, recipient of the 2025 CSDMS lifetime achievement award
Professor of Geomorphology and Coastal Processes, Director of Graduate Studies, Earth and Climate Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Professor A. Brad Murray is recognized for his innovative and insightful research on earth-surface dynamics, as well as for his longstanding contributions to community modeling and community science. Professor Murray has explored a wide range of geophysical systems and environments, from deserts to rivers to deltas and coasts. By viewing these environments as complex nonlinear systems, his work has illuminated how large-scale patterns and dynamics emerge from small-scale process feedbacks. Prof. Murray has been both a champion and an innovator of simple, elegant models that capture the essence of a dynamic system without over-complicating it. Through that approach he has demonstrated the value of computational models not just for simulating nature but, more importantly, for understanding it. Prof. Murray has also pioneered the integration of human and natural systems, through investigations of how water, sediment, ecosystems, and human behavior effectively create coupled systems with their own dynamics. In addition to his research, Prof. Murray has been a steadfast champion of open-source community models and modular modeling systems. He served both as a founding group chair and (later) as Steering Committee Chair for the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS). Brad Murray is Professor of Geomorphology and Coastal Processes and Director of Graduate Studies in the Division of Earth and Ocean Science, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.
