Dr. William (Breck) Bowden

Patrick Professor for Watershed Science and Planning

School of Natural Resources – University of Vermont

(Click here for Short CV, Full CV, or Statement of Qualifications)

 

Breck received his B.Sc. with majors in both Zoology and Chemistry from the University of Georgia in 1973.  He earned his M.Sc. from North Carolina State University for a project in which he developed a novel method to enumerate bacteria in estuarine water samples, with a scanning electron microscope.  Breck continued his academic affiliation with North Carolina State University, but moved to the newly formed Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts (USA) to co-lead an interdisciplinary research project focused on the structure and function of tidal, freshwater wetlands, a little-studied but important wetland type on the east coast of the United States.  Breck earned his Ph.D. in 1982, for his work on nitrogen cycling in this wetland type. 

 

In 1982, Breck moved to Yale University where he worked with Dr. Herbert Bormann, co-founder of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow.  Breck lead a project which focused on the impacts of whole-tree harvesting – at the time a relatively new form of forest management in the northeastern US – on emissions of nitrous oxide from soils to the atmosphere.  Nitrous oxide in an important contributor to climate change through “greenhouse” warming and has been implicated as a potentially important sink in the terrestrial nitrogen cycle.  While at Yale, Breck began his teaching career, in water resources management.

 

In 1987 Breck moved to the University of New Hampshire as an Assistant Professor, to establish a new undergraduate program in Water Resources Management, in what is now the Department of Natural Resources.  This new program complemented existing programs in Forestry, Soils, Wildlife, and Environmental Conservation.  After establishing the undergraduate program in Water Resources Management, Breck assisted with an important restructuring of the M.Sc. programs with the Department of Natural Resources and lead initial efforts to develop what has become a very successful interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Natural Resources.  While at UNH, Breck was twice selected by students in the department for their annual Distinguished Professor award and in 1991 he was honored by the University as the Outstanding Assistant Professor.  He was promoted to Associate Professor of Water Resources Management, with tenure, in 1992.

 

In 1997 Breck accepted a new position as Team Leader for Catchment and Biospheric Processes at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research New Zealand, Ltd. in Lincoln, New Zealand.  Shortly thereafter, he was also appointed as Programme Leader for the Integrated Catchment Management Programme.  The goal of this program is to improve the ability to manage land and water resources in New Zealand to achieve ecological sustainability and maintain biodiversity.  This program is ongoing and has served as a model for collaboration among research organizations and among researchers and stakeholder groups, including indigenous Maori communities.  While in New Zealand, Breck helped develop opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students to study sustainable management of natural resources through his involvement as an Advisory Board Member for EcoQuest International, a novel study-abroad program located in Kaiaua, near Auckland.

 

In 2002, Breck was invited to occupy the newly-created Patrick Chair in Watershed Science and Planning.  This position was made possible by a generous, $1 million gift from the Robert and Genevieve Patrick Trust to the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.  The purpose of this endowed Chair is to promote research, teaching, and outreach on sustainable management of natural resources through an integrated watershed management perspective.  This integrated perspective includes multiple disciplines, diverse stakeholders, participatory processes, and a focus on the links between environmental, social, and economics processes. In 2004 Breck was appointed as the Director of the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center, which is part of the National Institutes for Water Resources network on state Land Grant university campuses in the US.

 

In addition to his formal appointments, Breck has been a member of the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research (ArcLTER) program since 1987.  The ArcLTER is a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary program managed by the Ecosystem Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.  This research program focuses on the influences of direct and indirect human impacts on the basic ecology of terrestrial, lake, and stream ecosystems in the Arctic.  Breck continues to collaborate with a team of scientists who have focused on stream ecosystems and their functions in the Arctic landscape. In addition, Breck is the UVM representative for the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrological Sciences, Inc (CUAHSI) which is working through the National Science Foundation to help define future, large-scale research on hydrological processes.

 

Breck speaks frequently at public and professional meetings and is the author of over 75 scientific papers and reports.  He lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife Linda who develops and delivers public programs at ECHO at the Leahy Center on Lake Champlain, a lake aquarium and science center.  His oldest son, Jared, is a PhD student in neurophysiology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.  His younger son, Seth, is an undergraduate student in Political Science and Economics the University of Vermont.