Prospective Students

Thank you for you interest in joining my research group! Fisheries economics is an exciting and growing field, with many opportunities for interesting and important projects.

Are you accepting students for next year?

For the Fall 2013 admissions cycle, I am looking to attract 2-3 new graduate students to work on a range of projects.

On what kind of projects do your students work?

Students typically come into my lab linked with a particular project that I have designed and funded. After learning about research through these projects, many advanced students expand, and pursue funding for, their own expansions of research in the same area. I’m currently developing and staffing projects focused on:

  • Measuring, modeling and analyzing how different types of fishery regulations (MPAs, rights systems) interact with local conditions to produce ecological, economic and community outcomes. I am working with the World Bank to develop a database of case studies for analysis. (See Measuring Economic Performance on my research page.)
  • Understanding how harvesters respond to risk from a variety of sources, including markets, species variability, and limiting bycatch.
  • Understanding how harvesters decide when to fish, and for what. This is of particular interest in multispecies fisheries, or cases where vessels participate in multiple fisheries during a year.

    • What kind of students are you seeking?

    As SAFS’ Fisheries Economist, my position is interdisciplinary, and so too is my research group. I supervise and support students in three different programs:

  • My home department, the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.
  • The Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management program.
  • The UW Economics Department.

    • In addition, I am particularly interested in attracting a student with a focus on economics--enrolled in any of the three home programs in which I advise--into UW's Ocean Change IGERT program.

    These programs involve much different preparation and requirements, and train students for different types of research and job opportunities. Note, also, they have different application deadlines.

    Wow. Those are different sets of requirements.

    Yes. The SAFS program is structured as a natural science program, where you are admitted directly into an advisor’s lab (that would be mine), and learn primarily through research apprenticeship without a long list of required or core courses. QERM has one year of core courses required before linking with an advisor, and Economics has two years of core courses before identifying with an advisor is required. Both QERM and Economics make admissions decisions based on suitability to their overall programs, rather than one advisor’s research, but support from a potential advisor matters (a lot, if the advisor is offering funding), and earlier linking with an advisor is strongly encouraged.

    I expect that, regardless of chosen program, students in my lab will take some economics courses at the graduate level (in the economics department, or in other applied units around campus), and may take economics qualifying or field exams as a professional credential.

    All that looks cool, and one of these options might be right for me! How do I let you know?

    If you think this stuff is as cool as I do, I'd like to hear from you. But, before contacting me to inquire about whether you’d be a good fit in my lab, please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the programs and identify in which program your background and interests might fit best, and let me know in your email. The answer to almost every possible follow-up question depends on the program to which you want to apply.

    In addition, please let me know something about your preparation: classes you've taken and grades (unofficial transcripts are great for this), GRE scores, research experiences, etc. If it seems like a good fit, I'll provide some guidance on how to apply (and if you don't, then I'll tell you not to spend the time and money applying).