Welcoming new faculty, Amy Van Cise
In September 2022, SAFS welcomed Amy Van Cise, a new assistant professor. Amy’s expertise focuses on the evolutionary ecology of marine mammals, which she studies using integrative approaches, including genomics, acoustics, and environmental DNA.
With a diverse career starting off with bachelor’s degrees in Marine Biology and Journalism, Amy’s previous studies, jobs, and research have taken her from New Hampshire and Peru to the Antarctic and Hawai‘i, and now to Washington.
After working with the Peace Corps and then moving to NOAA’s Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, Amy went to graduate school at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She completed her PhD in Biological Oceanography and was awarded a postdoctoral scholar position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Amy moved to Washington in 2020 to work with the Cascadia Research Collective, and later worked at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
Amy’s research program at SAFS focuses on the use of sociality as an ecological and evolutionary strategy in certain cetacean species and the ways in which social behavior drives evolution and population structure in marine mammals. To accomplish her interdisciplinary research goals, Amy collaborates with many regional and international research organizations across government, nonprofit, and academic sectors.
Current research at her new lab (the Whale and Dolphin Ecology Lab [W.A.D.E.]) includes tracking large-scale marine mammal distributions using trace DNA left in the environment (eDNA), using fecal DNA to understand diet and foraging habits in southern resident killer whales, and understanding the effect of kinship and social behavior on microbiome similarity and disease transfer in the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale population.
Celebrating that careers are not always linear, Amy is grateful for the 18 years of experience with different languages, cultures, and field research opportunities—and the many skills picked up along the way between her undergraduate studies and her professorship.