Martin A. Reuss, Ph.D.

Highlights

• Served for twenty-four years as Senior Historian, Water Resources, for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and became the official Department of Army spokesperson on all matters concerning the history of water resources
• Wrote four books, nearly 40 articles, three pamphlets, and eight book chapters; edited or co-edited three books and three special issue journals, all on water resources
• Served as historical consultant to UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme
• Served as historical consultant and on-camera commentator for Public Broadcasting System “Modern Marvels” and “American Experience” shows and as technical consultant for “Dams,” part of a five-part PBS series on “Building Big.”
• Received American Philosophical Society, American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, and Fulbright grants and was awarded a senior fellowship from the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT
• Invited lecturer at over fifteen academic institutions, including Oxford University (Linacre Lecture), University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University, Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), Brown University, University of California at Santa Barbara (visiting professor), and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
  

Biography

Martin Reuss joined the Corps of Engineers in 1978 and retired in 2006.  Prior to his public service, he was an assistant professor, first at Georgia Southern College and then at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  At the Corps, he achieved national and international recognition for his expertise in water policy and programs and in the history of hydraulic engineering.  He specialized in the history of flood control and navigation in the Lower Mississippi Valley, but he supervised contracts in numerous areas concerning water resources.  Thirteen of these contract histories became books, of which six were eventually published by academic presses.  The last history he supervised dealt with the history of the Central and South Florida Water Project.  Other projects included the history of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the 1936 Flood Control Act, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Corps of Engineers regulatory program, and hurricane protection along the Gulf Coast.  He also served as the Corps of Engineers chief scenario writer for the agency’s strategic planning initiatives.

Reuss’s own books include Designing the Bayous:  The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995; Shaping Environmental Awareness:  The United States Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Advisory Board, 1970-1980; Reshaping National Water Politics:  The Emergence of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986; and Army Engineers in Memphis District. He edited or co-edited The Flood Control Challenge:  Past, Present, and Future; Water Resources Administration in the United States:  Policy, Practice, and Emerging Issues; and(forthcoming) The Illusory Boundary:  Environment and Technology in History

Reuss has been actively involved with professional organizations.  He served as president of the Society for History in the Federal Government, president of the National Capital Section of the American Water Resources Association, vice-president of the International Water History Association, and member of the History of Geophysics Committee of the American Geophysical Union.  He held various responsible positions in the Society for the History of Technology, the American Society for Environmental History, and the National Council on Public History.  Presently, he serves as a contributing editor for Technology and Culture, the leading journal in the history of technology, and is on the board of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Fulbright Association.

Dr.  Reuss continues his work as a historical consultant, providing historical analyses in support of various legal and other investigations, offering future scenarios for scenario-based strategic analysis, and serving as an advisor to museums and other institutions.  He is also working on a book-length history of hydrology in the United States.

Dr. Reuss received his B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University, all in history.