Dr. Ormsbee is a Raymond-Blythe Professor of civil engineering at the University of Kentucky where he currently serves as director of the Kentucky Water Research Institute, the director of the Kentucky Center of Excellence for Watershed Management, and the associate director of the UK Superfund Research Center. In the past he has served as director of the Kentucky Research Consortium for Energy and Environment, the director of the Tracy Farmer Center for the Environment and the Chair of the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission. Since joining UK in 1983, he has been actively engaged in research, teaching, and consulting in water resources and environmental engineering and has published more than 250 technical papers and reports on various topics in this field. He has also received over $25 million in direct research funding from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and U.S. EPA. He has also provided leadership and participated on research teams associated with an additional $25 million in collaborative funding.

His research experience has included projects dealing with the security and reliability of the Washington D.C. water system to environmental remediation issues associated with the clean up of the Paducah Uranium Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Over the last 15 years he has worked closely with the Kentucky Division of Water as well as the Kentucky River Authority to address watershed management issues across the state as well as water supply issues in central Kentucky. As associate director of the UK Superfund Research Center, Dr. Ormsbee's research interests have expanded into the role of nutrition as a modulator of toxic insult from environmental exposure to Superfund chemicals and the use of oxidative-reductive strategies for groundwater remediation.

Dr. Ormsbee is an internationally recognized expert on water distribution system modeling and security, serving as one of the early pioneers in the water distribution-modeling field. While at the University of Kentucky he partnered with Dr. Don Wood to help develop and market KYPIPE (a comprehensive water distribution system analysis software package) that has been used extensively by thousands of water utilities both in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Ormsbee also has extensive expertise in stormwater modeling and watershed management as well as additional expertise in groundwater remediation, research translation, and the development and implementation of effective strategies for public engagement in environmental and water resources issues.

A fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Dr. Ormsbee has been an active member of ASCE since 1978 and has served as the president of the Bluegrass Branch and Kentucky Section as well as leadership roles in several ASCE technical committees. He has been an active member of the Environmental Water Resources Institute since its inception and is a diplomat of the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers. In 2004 he served as vice president for the American Institute of Hydrology. He is a licensed professional engineer as well as a professional hydrologist.