Dr. Rinus Vis graduated in 1982 in Physical Geography from the University of Amsterdam. After research work and teaching assignments in various coun­tries, he joined Delft Hydraulics (now Deltares) in 1986. In 1989 he took his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. The topic of his Ph.D. thesis was the impact of changing land use (deforestation) on soil erosion rates and sediment yields of the rivers in the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes.

At Delft Hydraulics Dr. Vis specialized in policy analysis and sustainable and environmentally sound water resources development. He worked on a variety of projects in more than 30 countries. Examples are the National Water Management Plans for Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago and Mongolia. In the Netherlands he participated in a policy analysis to design measures and strategies to alleviate the flooding problems of the river Meuse, as well as in projects aiming at the design and evaluation of alternative flood risk management strategies for the lower Rhine River.

Besides, Dr. Vis developed as an expert on Environmental Planning and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Since 1991 he lectures Environmental Impact Assessment at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands.

At Deltares Dr Vis has been head of various departments and responsible for the research programme on Integrated Water Resources Management, as well as for market development in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Recently he moved to Singapore to become director of Deltares Singapore Operations.