Frank Magilligan

Frank Magilligan is a Professor of Geography and the Frank J. Reagan ’09 Chair of Policy Studies at Dartmouth College. He is a river scientist whose work addresses stream channel and watershed response to environmental change, particularly the response and recovery of rivers to floods, dam construction, and climate and land use change. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and other scientific organizations, and he was recently elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

His field work to understand river dynamics has taken him to watersheds throughout the United States, South America, Asia, and the Arctic, and he has evaluated riverine conditions across a range of climatic environments from Peru’s Atacama Desert to Iceland’s glaciated landscape. He has also worked with local communities and numerous NGOs in their attempts to restore river integrity at multiple scales. Through these collective efforts he has witnessed how river restoration is situated at the intersection of science, politics, and values – an intersection he intends to more deeply interrogate with his Guggenheim Award.

Photo Credit: Kelly Palmer