NOAA Awards Population Dynamics Fellowships
Contact:
Shauna Oh,
Assistant Director
California Sea Grant
College Program
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
E.: shaunaoh@ucsd.edu
T.: (858) 534-4440
Relevant Links:
- California Sea Grant Educational Opportunities
- 2010 NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship Program in Population Dynamics
Tools:
Revised:
July 23, 2010
Emilius Aalto, one of the two fellowship recipients, even spends his leisure time on the coast. B. Aalto
July 23, 2010
By: Rebecca Buddingh, California Sea Grant Intern
NOAA Fisheries/Sea Grant has awarded Population Dynamics Fellowships to two California graduate students.
Fellowship recipient Emilius Aalto, a doctoral student in ecology at UC Davis, will develop population models for analyzing rockfish stocks in California. The mentor on the project is Mary Yoklavich, leader of the Habitat Ecology Team, Fisheries Ecology Division of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz.
Though Aalto hopes to eventually be able to estimate rockfish populations in the ocean, at the moment he is doing mostly theoretical work to create population models.
“It will be very valuable to connect the theory to a real data set,” said Aalto, who hold’s a master’s in applied ecology from Stony Brook University in New York and a bachelor’s in computer science from Stanford University.
The other fellow is Valeria Brown, a doctor student in applied mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, who earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2008. She will test the robustness of various assumptions used to assess salmon stocks. Her mentor is Michael Mohr, leader of the Salmon Assessment Team at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.
“I came primarily from a math background,” said Brown. “I am extremely excited to make the transition into scientific research.”
The Population Dynamics Fellowship was established in 1999 to focus expertise in the areas of population dynamics and stock assessments. Through the program, fellows receive $38,500 per year, for up to three years, to support their research with NOAA Fisheries scientists. In 2010, six outstanding students from across the nation were selected for the program, two of which were nominated by California Sea Grant.
For more information on the fellowship and other educational opportunities at Sea Grant visit: http://www.csgc.ucsd.edu/EDUCATION/EducationIndx.html
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