Zoe Rand is a recipient of this year’s College of the Environment Graduate Dean’s Medalist award, a PhD student in the Quantitative Ecology & Resource Management (QERM) Program and member of SAFS Professor Trevor Branch’s lab, using mathematical and statistical models to study the population dynamics of baleen whales.

We’re excited to announce a new undergraduate degree in the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences (SAFS): Bachelor of Science in Aquatic Conservation and Ecology (ACE). Coming to UW in Autumn 2025.

The Aquatic Conservation and Ecology (ACE) degree is about the ecology of aquatic organisms, the rivers, lakes, and oceans in which they live, and how we conserve them for the benefit of people and the planet. This degree integrates the disciplines of ecology, evolution, and quantitative sciences and applies these principles to contemporary conservation and natural resource management issues.

Join SAFS for the screening of a new documentary, Scale of Change, on 8 May at 6pm. The documentary explores how individual actions, no matter how small, can lead to monumental transformations for the Atlantic salmon.

The UW Aquatic Sciences Open House is back on Saturday 17 May, offering a free and family-friendly day of hands-on learning to celebrate science and research that relates to water. Visitors can step on board a research boat used for local science, and experience real working science labs here at the university. We also have hands-on activities led by current UW students, staff, postdocs, and faculty across the College of the Environment and by organizations from the greater Seattle area.

Mark Scheuerell, SAFS Professor, has been named as an ASLO 2024 Sustaining Fellow, part of a cohort recognized for their sustained excellence in their contributions to ASLO and the aquatic sciences. ASLO is the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

Congratulations to Lisa Cantore, who was chosen as the recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Staff Award. In her role as Assistant Director, Research Administration, Lisa was described as “untiring and indefatigable, working to get proposals submitted.”

SAFS annually hosts the “Bevan Seminar on Sustainable Fisheries” funded by gifts from the Bevan family, and contributions from NOAA Fisheries and SAFS. This year, we will hold a one-day symposium on Thursday November 21, 2024, centered on Tribal voices, reflecting on the past 50 years and considering what the future of Washington fisheries will look like over the next 50 years.

SAFS is hiring for three tenure-track faculty jobs: Assistant Professor Freshwater Ecology, Assistant or Associate Professor in Pacific Salmon ecology, evolution, & management, and Associate or Full Professor in Applied Organismal Biology & Aquaculture and Executive Director of the Western Regional Aquaculture Center. Apply now!

On 16 September 2024, the newest faculty member will join SAFS, Assistant Professor Carter Smith. Carter is an interdisciplinary coastal ecologist whose interests lie at the intersection of multiple disciplines including community ecology, conservation and restoration science, and coupled human natural systems research.

We’re happy to announce this year’s Faculty Merit Award winners, given annually to graduating students at all ranks in recognition of exceptional achievement and contributions to the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. This is by far the most prestigious of the many awards conferred by the School to students, where the nominations come directly from SAFS faculty.