Thayer Scudder
Born: * August, ****, New Haven, Connecticut
Married: Mary Eliza Drinker, 1950
Current Professional Position: Professor of Anthropology
Emeritus, California Institute of Technology
Office Address: 228-77 Caltech, Pasadena,
California, 91125, U.S.A.
Email: abpvpm@r.postjobfree.com
Education: A.B. Biology and Anthropology, Harvard College
Ph.D. Anthropology, Harvard University
Post Doctoral Fellowship, London School of
Economics
Major Research Interests:
Impacts of large-scale river basin development
projects on low income populations
Systematic long-term studies of low income human
communities
Regional development; irrigated and rainfed
pioneer settlement
Community-based natural resource management
Major Field Research (partial listing):
Middle Zambezi Valley : 1956-Present
Aswan High Dam: 1961-1962
Sri Lanka s Mahaweli Project: 1979-1989
Comparative analysis of land settlement projects in
14 countries: 1979-1985
Comparative analysis of river basin development in
Africa, the Middle East and Asia: 1956-Present
Botswana s Southern Okavango Integrated Water
Development Project: 1991-92
Current and Recent Advisory Positions (partial listing)
1986-1987 Resettlement adviser to CIDA-funded
CIPM-Yangtze Joint Venture feasibility study of the
Three Gorges Project
1989-2002 Panel of Environment and Resettlement
Experts (POE): Lesotho Highlands Water Project
1993 POE: China s Longtan Project
1996-Present POE: Lao P.D.R s NT2 Project
1998-2000 POE: Swaziland s Maguga Dam
1999 Internal Review Panel of the International
Water Management Institute
1998-2000 Commissioner, World Commission on
Dams
2002-2003 U.S. National Research Council
Committee to Assess U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Methods of Analysis and Peer Review for Water
Resources Project Planning
Recent Publications (partial listing)
1993 IUCN Review of the Southern Okavango
Integrated Water Development Project. Senior author
with 12 colleagues
1993 Development-induced Relocation and Refugee
Studies: 37 years of change and continuity among
Zambia s Gwembe Tonga, Journal of Refugees
Studies, Vol 6 (2): 123-152
1994 Recent experiences with river basin
development in the tropics and subtropics, Natural
Resources Forum 18(2): 101-113
1997 Chapters on Social Impacts and
Resettlement in Water Resources: Environmental
Planning, Management and Development, edited by
Asit K. Biswas, New York: McGraw Hill.
2000 The World Commission on Dams and the
Need for a New Development Paradigm,
International Journal of Water Resources
Development. Vol 17, No.3:329-341.
2005 The Future of Large Dams: Dealing with social,
environmental, institutional and political costs.
London: Earthscan.