Seven Fellows selected to study fisheries population dynamics and resource economics.

In 1999 NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the Sea Grant program introduced a specialized joint fellowship program. Multi-year fellowships are awarded annually to students pursuing doctorates in Population Dynamics (stock assessments and ecosystem modeling) and Marine Resource Economics (value and economic relevance of fisheries).  The program is a classic fellowship in that the award, $38,500 annually, attempts to cover the cost of the fellow’s education (tuition and living expenses).  Awards are for either two or three years.  As of last year, 76 fellowships have been awarded.
For 2013, 7 new fellows were selected – 6 in the population dynamics discipline and 1 in resource economics.  The new population dynamics fellows are Katelyn Bosley, Oregon State University, ‘Age-structured matrix modeling of burrowing shrimp population dynamics’; Christopher Free, Rutgers State University, ‘An evaluation of data-poor assessment methods using data-rich stock assessment’; Steven Garner, University of South Alabama, ‘Modeling the impacts of gear regulations in the northern Gulf of Mexico recreational reef fishery’;  Ian Kroll, University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences, ‘Linking habitat to stock assessment’; Cole Monahan, University of Washington, ‘Optimizing Bayesian analysis in data-rich stock assessments and management of data limited fisheries’; and Lynn Waterhouse, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, ‘Development of a novel nested-patch occupancy model’.
The new resource economics fellow is Marysia Szymkowiak, University of Delaware, ‘Assessing the benefits and costs of modifications to rights-based management programs’. 
We congratulate the fellows on their selection and look forward to discussion and presentations on their doctoral research at the fellows’ annual meeting.