Eric Essington, UW Biology senior, has been working on his independent research project in the Roberts Lab for the past year, looking into a familiar hard-shelled mollusk: the oyster. Why? To simulate temperature changes associated with climate change and explore the impact on Pacific oysters.

Congratulations to Markus Min, the recipient of the 2023-2024 Award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA) given by the College of the Environment. Markus, a Ph.D. Candidate in SAFS, has been a trusted leader since joining the school in fall of 2020, and a strong advocate for equity and inclusion at both the unit level and across the College. 

In a lot of ways, deep reefs are understudied. Too deep for divers to reach and only accessible by submarines, this zone of ocean habitat is often overlooked. We spoke to SAFS master’s student, Sarah Yerrace, about her research focused on one thing in particular: lionfish.

According to new research published by SAFS grad student, Giordano Jacuzzi, military aircraft noise from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island presents a substantial risk to public health.

Part of the SAFS PhD program, Chris Mantegna has been named as one of the Husky 100 for 2024. Students are chosen for actively connecting what happens inside and outside of the classroom and applying this learning to make a difference on campus, their communities, and for the future.

The Daily UW features the degrees offered at SAFS, which is centered on the belief that students must experience the environments and species they’re studying.

Chris Mantegna writes a Nature World View piece, saying amid the data deluge provided by lab-based techniques, such as environmental-DNA analysis, true connection still comes only in the outdoors.

Alaskan waters are a critical fishery for salmon, and scientists want to know the impact of climate change. As a UW SAFS doctoral student, Natalie Mastick investigated Alaskan marine food webs using an unorthodox source: old cans of salmon, from four species all caught over a 42-year period.

Recently contributing to a special Oceanography issue titled ‘Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Ocean Sciences’ was Dr. Xochitl Clare, a postdoctoral scholar at SAFS.

Since 2017, Kristin Privitera-Johnson has been working with André Punt on creating a population model for North Pacific humpback whales as part of the work of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. This population is modeled using various datasets – new, old, hidden, lost. Working with other members on their team, they’re uncovering new ways to deliver deeper insights into this population of humpbacks, including use of genetic and photo IDs data on population connectivity.