Pat McDowell came to Oregon in 1982 when she joined the faculty of University of Oregon. From 1982 to 2025, she taught and did research on rivers, landforms, and water resources in all parts of Oregon and elsewhere. She feels very lucky to have had such a wonderful landscape to study and teach about, including taking hundreds of students on field trips to all corners of the state. Much of her research, funded by federal, state and tribal agencies, focused on effects of human impacts and climate change on river systems, and river and floodplain restoration. She has served on the McKenzie River Trust Lands Committee since 2008. In retirement she has continued her service on advisory committees of the Long Tom Watershed Council, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and other organizations, squeezing in some fun time for hiking, traveling, and cooking. She has bachelors and masters degrees from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in Geography from University of Wisconsin-Madison.