Len Shabman joined RFF in 2002 as a Senior Fellow after three decades on the Virginia Tech faculty member. He has also held positions at the United States Water Resources Council; as a scientific advisor to the assistant secretary of the Army, Civil Works; as a visiting scholar at the National Academy of Sciences; and as Arthur Maass-Gilbert White Scholar at the Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources. In 2004, Shabman was honored to be named an Associate of the National Academies of Science (NAS), and in 2018, he received the Warren Hall medal lifetime achievement award from the Universities Council on Water Resources.

Shabman’s current work balances time spent in research with advisory activities in order to have a direct bearing on the design and execution of water and related resources policy. His ongoing work focuses on protocols for water development projects and ecosystem restoration programs, design of market-like environmental management programs, and increasing the effectiveness of national flood risk management and disaster aid programs.