Dr Graham McDowell

Biography

Dr. McDowell’s research focuses on human vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in high mountain areas, with a focus on lived experiences of changes in glacial hydrology. He has led community-level projects in the Nepal Himalaya, Peruvian Andes, Rocky Mountains, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic as well as numerous large-scale assessments of the human dimensions of climate change in cold regions. Dr. McDowell is committed to the mobilization of knowledge about mountains and environmental change, including through his work as a Contributing Author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Editorial Board member of the journal Mountain Research and Development. He is currently the Project Leader for the Canadian Mountain Assessment, which is providing a first-of-its-kind look at the state of knowledge of Canada’s mountains, including the relative scope of knowledge across topics and geographies, based on both Western academic and Indigenous knowledges. Dr. McDowell completed a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Zurich and holds degrees from the University of British Columbia (PhD), the University of Oxford (MSc with Distinction), and McGill University (BA Honours 1st class). He lives in Canmore, Alberta, on Treaty 7 lands, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

Publication: Graham McDowell, Madison Stevens, Shawn Marshall, et al. November 2023. The Canadian Mountain Assessment: Walking Together to Enhance Understanding of Mountains in Canada