Martin Doyle

Professor of River Systems Science and Policy

Senior Associate Dean for Academic and University Initiatives and Centers Liaison

Primary Appointment

Environmental Science & Policy Division

Martin Doyle is a Professor at Duke University focused on the science and policy of rivers and water in the US. His work ranges from fluid mechanics and sediment transport to infrastructure finance and federal water policy. His first book, The Source (WW Norton, February, 2018), is a history of America’s rivers. In addition to his role as a professor, 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 conservation 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 is also the director for water policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, where is a co-organizer and leader of the annual Aspen-Nicholas Water Forum, which brings together some of the world’s foremost thought leaders each year around the future of water.

He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation, and recognized as a Kavli Fellow for the Frontiers of Science from the US National Academy of Sciences.

More Information

Personal Website Duke River Center

In The News

7/30/2019

For organisms that Go with the flow in rivers, it’s a darker journey than we thought

11/12/2018

Duke-based Water Project Receives $2 Million from Moore Foundation

10/18/2018

Bachman Brings Deep Experience in Natural Resource Finance to Nicholas School

More News

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Doyle, M. W., J. Singh, R. Lave, and M. M. Robertson. “The morphology of streams restored for market and nonmarket purposes: Insights from a mixed natural-social science approach.” Water Resources Research 51, no. 7 (July 1, 2015): 5603–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017030.

Doyle, Martin W., and Jesko Von Windheim. “Environmental management strategy: four forces analysis..” Environmental Management 55, no. 1 (January 2015): 6–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0389-5.

Robertson, M., T. K. BenDor, R. Lave, A. Riggsbee, J. B. Ruhl, and M. Doyle. “Stacking ecosystem services.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12, no. 3 (January 1, 2014): 186–93. https://doi.org/10.1890/110292.

Doyle, Martin W., Rebecca Lave, Morgan M. Robertson, and Julia Ferguson. “River Federalism.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103, no. 2 (March 2013): 290–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2013.754686.

Doyle, M. W. “America's Rivers and the American Experiment.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 48, no. 4 (August 1, 2012): 820–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2012.00652.x.

Womble, P., and M. Doyle. “The geography of trading ecosystem services: A case study of wetland and stream compensatory mitigation markets.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 36, no. 1 (July 25, 2012): 229–96.

Doyle, M. W. “Compensatory mitigation for streams under the Clean Water Act.” J Amer Water Resources Assoc 48 (July 2012): 494–509.

Doyle, M. W., and F. Douglas Shields. “Compensatory Mitigation for Streams Under the Clean Water Act: Reassessing Science and Redirecting Policy.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 48, no. 3 (June 1, 2012): 494–509. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00631.x.

Doyle, Martin W., and Emily S. Bernhardt. “What is a stream?.” Environmental Science & Technology 45, no. 2 (January 2011): 354–59. https://doi.org/10.1021/es101273f.

Doyle, M. W., and S. H. Ensign. “Alternative reference frames in river system science.” Bioscience 59, no. 6 (January 1, 2009): 499–510. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2009.59.6.8.