Ted Scudder, a social anthropologist and fixture on the Caltech campus for more than 50 years, is one of the world’s foremost experts on large dams. He’s also one of their fiercest critics. That wasn’t always the case though. Early in his career, he, like many people at the time, saw big dam projects as a societal good and a path to prosperity for developing nations. His experiences over the next six decades, especially with the people who were displaced by the dams, changed his mind.