Todd Shallat writes and teaches about cities, technology, and the environment. His publications span 24 books and more than 50 book chapters and essays. Literary honors include the Henry Adam Prize for historical writing, the Abel Wolman Award for engineering history, two silver medals for trade book publishing, and three Idaho Book Awards. In 2002, Shallat was named the Carnegie Foundation’s Idaho Professor of the Year.

Born in Chicago and raised in San Mateo, California, Shallat earned the Ph.D. in Applied History and Social Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1985. Structures in the Stream: Water, Science, and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, published by the University of Texas in 1994, won two national book prizes. In 2014, the American Public Works Association published a collection of Shallat’s essays as Hope for the Dammed: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Greening of the Mississippi.

Shallat’s Idaho writings mostly concern the history and geography of strange and remarkable places. Snake (1994), funded by the National Park Service, remains standard reference on the natural history of Southern Idaho. Three of Shallat’s edited art books—Secrets of the Magic Valley (2002), Surviving Minidoka (2014), and Idaho Microbes (2015)—were named Idaho Book of the Year. Local publications with an urban focus include Harrison Boulevard (1989); Ethnic Landmarks (2007); Quintessential Boise (2010), and an award-winning co-authored study of low-income housing called Mobile Home Living in Boise (2007). The Idaho Adventure (2011, 2017), received the state’s highest textbook ranking. Writings about western water have appeared in the Idaho Statesman and High Country News.

At Boise State University, where Shallat founded the Center of Idaho History and Politics, his work was mostly as a publisher and a program builder. Lasting achievements include the city’s first residential historic preservation zoning; also the Boise City’s Department of Arts and History, Canyon County’s Celebration Park, Boise’s First Thursday Fettuccine Forum, and the Investigate Boise annual series of essays on the politics and history of metropolitan growth. In 2009 Shallat received Boise City’s first “Excellence in the Arts” commendation. In 2019 he received the Idaho State Historical Society’s lifetime achievement Esto Perpetua Award.