Lawson W. Brigham

Lawson W. Brigham is a Global Fellow in the Wilson Center's Polar Institute. He is a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Fellow at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's Center for Arctic Study & Policy. Captain Brigham was a career Coast Guard officer and commanded four cutters including the icebreaker Polar Sea on Arctic & Antarctic expeditions. During 2004-09 he was chair of the Arctic Council's Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment. He is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and earned his PhD at Cambridge University. Dr. Brigham is a member of the National Academies Polar Research Board and is a Council on Foreign Relations member. His research interests have focused on the Russian maritime Arctic, environmental change, polar marine transportation, and polar geopolitics.