Students
Current Graduate Students |
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Morgan Bond (PhD) |
Morgan is interested in the life history diversity of fishes in the Chignik Lakes watershed on the Alaska Peninsula. His particular focus is the population structure and habitat use of Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma) within the Chignik Lakes drainage, as well as the consequences for salmonids rearing in the large and unique Chignik lagoon. Prior to entering the University of Washington, he received his M.S. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and worked at the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory there on the ecology of coho salmon and steelhead trout at the southern end of their range in North America. Selected Publications:
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Curry Cunningham (MS) |
Curry Cunningham completed his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver before coming to SAFS. Curry is primarily interested in the evolutionary ecology of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), specifically the influences of anthropogenic and natural selection. His research employs applied techniques to: 1) quantify changes in morphometric and life-history traits over time resulting from fishery selection, 2) synthesize empirical data on fishery, predatory and sexual selection into predictive individual-based models, permitting inference regarding future phenotypic changes, and 3) evaluate the evolutionary implications of alternative fishery management strategies. Curry is a former salmon fisherman in Bristol Bay, Alaska and is delighted to have returned to conduct field research in the Wood and Kvichak River systems. |
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Fred Goetz (PhD) |
Fred received his M.S. from Oregon State University where he studied the ecology of bull trout and since then he has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a fish biologist studying the movements of salmon and trout in Puget Sound. In his professional work, Fred has evaluated fish passage and habitat conditions at several Corps dams and navigation projects including in the Green River, White/Puyallup Rivers, the Ballard Locks, and the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit, and Nooksack Rivers. At the Locks Fred helped design and evaluate a fish passage system for protection of migrating salmon smolts. In development of the system, he tested and evaluated three behavioral guidance techniques (low-frequency sound, strobe lights, and slowing the fill rate of the lock) to keep smolts from becoming entrained in the filling system for the locks. Strobe lights and slowing the fill rate were found to be effective in reducing entrainment and these techniques are now part of the smolt passage system. As part of this work at the Locks, Fred helped develop a long-term monitoring plan for the Lake Washington system by including PIT-tag monitors in flumes that are designed to pass smolts from freshwater to Shilshole Bay. Juvenile Chinook and coho salmon have been tagged in various Lake Washington tributaries and monitored with the readers since 2000. As part of an assessment of dredging projects in Puget Sound rivers, Fred has been monitoring bull trout behavior and habitat use in estuary and nearshore areas in northeast Puget Sound since 2002. This work is the first research to study the anadromous life history type of bull trout. This research is being used in recovery planning for ESA-listed Puget Sound bull trout. His dissertation project is a multi-species investigation of salmonid movements using ultrasonic telemetry. Working in cooperation with a large number of investigators from various agencies (e.g., NOAA-Fisheries, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Seattle City Light, Nisqually Tribal Fisheries Office) he has been tagging steelhead, anadromous cutthroat trout and bull trout, and coho and Chinook salmon. These species range from those thought to invariably migrate to the Pacific ocean for feeding (steelhead), to species that may reside in Puget Sound or migrate to the coast (coho and Chinook salmon) and those thought to invariably remain within Puget Sound, near their natal rivers (cutthroat and bull trout). The telemetry study should provide insights into the basic biology of these species and also facilitate conservation efforts. Selected Publications:
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Dan Hasselman |
Dan has broad interests in evolutionary biology, molecular ecology and conservation. His research explores the evolution of wild anadromous fish populations over contemporary time scales, and aims to bridge the gap between academia and application by employing molecular and non-molecular tools to provide linkages between evolutionary biology and practical conservation. See his website for details of specific research interests. Selected Publications
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Rachel Hovel (PhD) |
Rachel is broadly interested in the processes of community ecology for freshwater fishes and in the freshwater life history stages of anadromous salmonids. Her present work focuses on responses of littoral zone fish communities to large-scale environmental changes in Alaskan oligotrophic lake systems. This study uses historical data to describe changes in community composition and fish growth rates over a documented forty-year warming trend in the Wood River lakes and Iliamna Lake, and will examine how the dynamics of these patterns are influenced by the responses of differing fish life histories. Along similar general themes, she is completing undergraduate thesis work along with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center that takes a stable isotope approach to examining ecological overlap between hatchery and wild Chinook salmon juveniles in Puget Sound. |
Jessica Rohde (MS) |
Jessica's research examines the early marine migration and behavior of Puget Sound sub-adult coho salmon. This project combines complimentary methods to investigate migration at two levels: 1) data from a network of acoustic telemetry receivers within the Puget Sound to allow investigation of the small-scale vertical and horizontal movements of individuals, and 2) analysis of coded wire tag records of Puget Sound hatchery and wild coho populations to reveal large-scale migratory patterns at the population level. Jessica's broad interests in movement ecology and marine resource conservation have facilitated her participation in international research in both Mongolia and the Turks & Caicos Islands. As the President of the University of Washington Student Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, she is active in outreach, and has a passion for communicating about science with the public. See her website for more information on her research and outreach.
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Peter Westley |
Peter completed his Ph.D. from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2012 where he used the introduction of brown trout as a natural experiment to examine broad ecological and evolutionary questions. Generally speaking, Peter is interested in understanding how organisms adapt, both through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity, to novel environments. His post-doctoral work aims to better understand the behavioral patterns and processes of colonization by utilizing PIT tag and coded wire tag data from Columbia River salmon and steelhead. Selected publications:
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Jon Whittouck (MS) |
Jon's reasearch explores the movement patterns of coastal cutthroat trout in Puget Sound. He is interested in interactions with other salmonid species and environmental factors as driver of their movement. Jon has been the Aquatic Lab Manager for nine years and is currently working part time while he pursued an M.S. degree in the Quinn Lab. |
Recently Graduated Students |
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Neala Kendall (MS 2007, PhD 2011) |
Neala Kendall received her BA in biology from Kenyon College in Ohio. After a three-year stint doing environmental consulting in northern California she moved to Seattle to begin her graduate work at SAFS. For her master's thesis, Neala quantified fishery selection by a gillnet fishery on age and size at maturity of sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. She examined selection from 1946-2007 at two scales, the Nushagak District (Kendall et al. 2009), and individual spawning populations within the Wood River system that differ in age and size at maturity (Kendall and Quinn 2009). Neala extended this project for her PhD, for which she investigated potential life history evolution resulting from this fishery selection. Neala first worked on a project to analyze long term data on age and size at smolt transformation and maturation of wild and common garden-reared Columbia River sockeye salmon populations to better understand how genetic and environmental effects impact age and size at maturation (Kendall et al. 2010 ESR). She found that genetic effects play a role in influencing these traits, suggesting that fishery selection has the potential to result in evolutionary changes in Pacific salmon. In other PhD chapters Neala has used vulnerability profiles and selection differentials to quantify commercial fishery selection on Bristol Bay, Alaska sockeye salmon across fishing districts where different types of fishing gear is employed (Kendall and Quinn in prep) and both commercial and recreational fishery selection on one population of Bristol Bay Chinook salmon (Kendall and Quinn 2011 TAFS). Finally, in the remaining chapters of her dissertation Neala tested the hypothesis that trends in age and size at maturation of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon are driven by environmental effects in conjunction with selective fishing and teasing apart phenotypic plasticity and genetic changes using probabilistic maturation reaction norms and quantitative genetics models. Neala enjoys the balance of fieldwork and quantitative analyses employed in her research, and she has also appreciated her recent classes in science communication. After graduating, Neala became a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Selected Publications:
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Pamela Woods (dual PhD degree, UW and University of Iceland, 2011) |
Pamela earned a dual doctoral degree between the University of Washington and the University of Iceland. This is the first such dual degree that the University of Washington has allowed with an external university. As part of a European Research Training Network, FishACE, she began her dissertation in January 2008 by studying evolutionary patterns of divergence in Arctic char populations, and how these relate to local ecological conditions of lakes across Iceland. Her supervisors are Skúli Skúlason (Hólar University College, Iceland), Siggi Snorrason (University of Iceland), and Thomas Quinn (University of Washington). She continued with a comparison of Icelandic freshwater food webs and those at field sites in Alaska, another high-latitude region that is geologically older and more biologically diverse. These projects will aid natural resource management by yielding an understanding for how environmental issues, such as global climate change or exploitation, may affect the ecology of freshwater systems. After graduating, Pamela became a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in the Marice lab with Dr. Guðrún Marteinsdóttir (Iceland).
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Joseph Anderson (MS 2007, PhD 2011) |
Joe Anderson's research in the Quinn lab investigated the process of salmon colonization on a local Washington river where the construction of fish passage facilities have permitted coho and Chinook salmon to access habitat they had been denied for over 100 years. His M.S. thesis work described the movements of adult coho salmon in the new habitat (Anderson and Quinn 2007), as well as the distribution of juvenile coho in relation to adult spawning sites (Anderson et al. 2008). His dissertation research employed molecular genetics to evaluate the individual and population-level reproductive success of both coho and Chinook salmon during colonization. After graduating, Joe became a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Selected Publications:
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Thomas Buehrens (MS, 2011) |
Thomas' research in the Quinn lab investigated the ecology of rainbow and cutthroat trout in the Cedar River, Washington. Fish populations in this river were segregated in 1901, when a diversion dam was built, preventing migratory fish from accessing the upper watershed. Trout populations living in the river upstream of the dam were forced to adopt resident life histories and were isolated from below-dam populations of trout and anadromous Pacific salmon. In 2003, modification of the dam restored passage for migrating fish, and allowed coho and Chinook salmon to spawn above the dam. Thomas investigated the effects of restored habitat connectivity and colonizing salmon on coastal cutthroat and rainbow trout. His methodology employed Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags to study the growth, movement, and survival of trout, molecular genetics to distinguish between trout species and hybrids, and stable isotope chemistry to relate growth and movement of individual trout with potential forage resources. After Graduating, Thomas became a Research Fishery Biologist with Wild Fish Conservancy. |
Todd Seamons (PhD, 2005; Post-Doc, 2011) |
Todd's research with the Quinn lab investigated the evolution of fitness traits of fishes in natural and human-manipulated environments, utilizing molecular and quantitative genetic methods to 1) to determine evolutionary processes in fish populations and 2) investigate the impacts of management and conservation on these processes. His work specifically focues on salmonids, which have diverse life histories, are of significant regional management and conservation interest and are cultured on an extensive scale. He also used genetic tools to investigate impacts of hatchery steelhead on wild populations. After completing his post-doc, Todd went to work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Selected Publications:
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Troy Jaecks (MS, 2010) |
Troy's thesis was on population dynamics and trophic ecology of Dolly Varden in the Iliamna River, Alaska [PDF]. After graduating, Troy continued his work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. |
Joshua Chamberlin (MS, 2009) |
Josh's thesis was on early marine migratory patterns and the factors that promote resident type behavior of Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, in Puget Sound, Washington [PDF]. After graduating, Josh went to work at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. |
George Pess (PhD, 2009) |
George's dissertation was on patterns and processes of salmon colonization [PDF]. After graduating, George became a Supervisory Research Fishery Biologist in the Watershed Program at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. |
Graduate Students SupervisedMaster of Science degrees
Doctor of Philosophy degrees
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