Duncan Patten

Emeritus Professor, Life Sciences, Arizona State University

Dr. Duncan Patten is past Director of the Montana Water Center and a retired Research Professor with the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University, Bozeman. He is also Professor Emeritus in the School of Life Sciences and past director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University. Dr. Patten holds an A.B. degree from Amherst College, an M.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. from Duke University.

His research interests include arid and mountain ecosystems, especially the understanding of ecological processes of riparian, wetland, and riverine ecosystems. Dr. Patten’s research has also involved developing conceptual models for and studies of ecosystem indicators of watershed and National Park ecosystem condition, and he served on a Washington State Academy of Sciences committee reviewing indicators of Puget Sound health and recovery. He was Senior Scientist of the Bureau of Reclamations Glen Canyon Environmental Studies, overseeing the research program evaluating effects of operations of Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River riverine ecosystem. Dr. Patten was founding president of the Arizona Riparian Council, president of the Society of Wetland Scientists, and Business Manager of the Ecological Society of America. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology; the NAS/NRC Commission on Geoscience, Environment and Resources, and eleven NAS/NRC committees, chairing two. He has also served on the National Science Foundation Environmental Biology/Ecological Sciences Panel. He participated in the development of the Heinz Center’s “State of the Nation’s Ecosystems” project and he was a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board.