Dr Rob Brander is a coastal geomorphologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, NSW, Australia. He has been studying beaches and surf zones for 20 years having completed a BSc and MSc at the University of Toronto where Canadian water temperatures convinced him to live in Australia. His PhD on the morphodynamics of rip currents was completed at the University of Sydney in 1997. He has published over 20 articles based on his research on rip currents, coral reef-islands, and the 2004 tsunami and has taught at UNSW since 2000.

Rob started giving community Science of the Surf talks in 2001 and developed his school SOS program in 2006. In 2009 he travelled through the United States meeting and working with rip current scientists and educators in California, Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina and Florida. He is the invited Keynote Speaker at the First International Rip Current Symposium to be held in Miami, Florida in February 2010. Rob is a member and ex-caretaker of the Tamarama Beach SLSC and is passionate about surf safety, coastal education and bodysurfing. Somewhere along the line, he gained the moniker “Dr Rip” from the local lifeguards and lifesavers. He is not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!