Martin Doyle
River Scientist, Duke University
Martin Doyle is a Professor at Duke University focused on rivers. His research and teaching is focused on river science and policy, from fluid mechanics and sediment transport to infrastructure finance and federal water policy. He has published over 100 journal articles and law reviews, along with two books, The Source (WW Norton), a history of America’s rivers (Book page), and Streams of Revenue (with Rebecca Lave) MIT Press), a study of environmental markets (book page). Doyle is a co-organizer and leader of the annual water forum at the Aspen Institute, which brings together some of the world’s foremost thought leaders around the future of water.
Doyle splits his time at Duke between the Nicholas School of the Environment–a traditional academic unit focused on basic research and education–and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy–a think tank that focuses on pragmatic policy approaches to environmental issues.
In addition to these roles at Duke, Doyle has had several stints in government: in 2015-2016, he moved to the Department of Interior, where he helped establish the Natural Resources Investment Center, an initiative of the Obama 
Administration to push forward private investment in water infrastructure, enable water marketing, and increase the use of markets and mitigation banks for species conservation. Prior to that, in 2009-2010, he was the inaugural Frederick J. Clarke Scholar at the US Army Corps of Engineers. During this time, he was located at the Institute for Water Resources and tasked with assisting the Corps with regulatory policy particularly focused on mitigation banking and jurisdiction of ‘waters of the US.’
Over the past 20 years, Doyle’s research has ranged from aging infrastructure and dam removal to emerging environmental markets and impact investing in water. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation, and recognized by the US National Academy of Sciences as both a Kavli Fellow for the Frontiers of Science and selected for the annual Gilbert White Lecture for his contributions in geographical sciences, specifically related to water.
Doyle received a PhD in Earth Science from Purdue University, a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of Mississippi, and undergraduate degrees in Physics and Math from Harding University.
He continues to work on many aspects of river science and policy, and is currently working on a book about the history of water, finance, and cities in America.