Person

Brigham, Lawson W.

Dr. Lawson Brigham is Distinguished Professor of Geography & Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North in Anchorage. During 2005-2009 he was chair of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and Vice Chair of the Council’s working group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment. Dr. Brigham was a career U.S. Coast Guard officer serving from 1970-95 and retiring with the rank of Captain. He served at sea in command of four Coast Guard cutters including a patrol boat, Great Lakes icebreaker, offshore law enforcement cutter, and the polar icebreaker Polar Sea sailing in Alaskan, Arctic & Antarctic waters; he also served as Chief of Strategic Planning in Washington, DC. He has participated in more than 15 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, including Polar Sea’s crossing of the Arctic Ocean in summer 1994.