Associate, Arctic Initiative
Douglas Causey is an Associate at the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Previously, he was Senior Fellow of the Belfer Center and Senior Biologist at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. From 1995-2000, Doug represented the National Science Foundation (NSF) at organizational meetings leading to the formation of the Arctic Council and was NSF's Arctic Representative during the Gore-Chernomyrdin negotiations on US-Russian Science Policy.
An ecologist and evolutionary biologist by training, he has authored over two hundred publications on topics as diverse as the ecology of Arctic marine birds, high Arctic coastal systems, and bat-borne disease ecology. He has published extensively on policy issues related to Arctic environmental security, Arctic One-Health, and bioterrorism and public health. His current environmental research examines the environmental correlates of climate change in the Arctic upon birds and mammals, its consequential impact on local and Indigenous people, and zoonotic disease. He and his students are actively conducting research in the Aleutian Islands, the northern Bering Sea, and Northwestern Greenland. He is co-lead of the Coastal Environment and People Working Group of the NSF-funded Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean (GRISO) Science Network.
His research with the Belfer Center focuses on the detailed examination of the nature of national and international security issues associated with the rapid environmental change in the Arctic.
