Lab Personnel
Matt Dunkle, PhD
Matt is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab. He is a freshwater and fisheries ecologist interested in quantifying the impact of climate and land-use change on rivers, streams, and lakes. His PhD work addressed salmon food webs in glacial, snow, and rainfed streams in southeast Alaska. He is currently working on a synthesis of over a decade of lake water quality data with the National Park Service in southwest Alaska. In his free time, Matt likes to pick the five string banjo and explore the world with his wife and daughter.
John Hermus
John is a masters student in Fisheries. He is studying the effects of temperature, and other environmental effects, on juvenile Chinook and Coho salmon growth in the Deshka River watershed. His project is in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Dakota Keller
Dakota is a masters student in Biology studying the restoration of Cripple Creek in Fairbanks. She loves Alaska’s work hard play hard attitude and spending time with her partner, Ben, and her furry shadow, Houndy.
Ian Kwit
Ian is a masters student in Biology looking to conduct research on the habits and health of the waterfowl communities of Alaska. They also assist the university as a teaching assistant.
Eli Wilson
Eli is a masters student in Fisheries working on a project quantifying the impact of boat wakes on erosion and salmonid habitat at Big Lake. He spends most of his free time in the outdoors, especially during salmon fishing season, and is looking forward to exploring the area around Fairbanks!
Nate Cathcart
Nate is a PhD student in Fisheries researching the distribution and ecology of Pacific Lamprey in Alaska. He also leads the Alaska Freshwater Fish Inventory from Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s Anchorage office. Learn more at natecathcart.weebly.com. Nate is co-advised by Dr. Trent Sutton.
Thomas House
Thomas is a masters student in Fisheries. His project focuses on habitat assessment and aquatic food web characterization for a planned stream restoration in Coal Creek, Alaska.
Lauren Yancy
Lauren is a masters student in Fisheries. She is studying the impacts of "rusting rivers" on Dolly Varden, aquatic communities, and fishers in and around the Wulik River in Northwest Alaska.
Volunteers
AKA Jeff's kids. They kick around rivers enough with Jeff that they warrant mention.
They can't go on boats and aren't much use for carrying gear, but they do take photos and consume many snacks.
Former Members
Lily Ann Reece
Lily was a high school AFS Hutton Scholar with the lab in summer 2024. She assisted with the field work and macroinvertebrate lab analysis for the Cripple Creek and Nome Creek restoration projects with Dakota Keller. She is also a champion beaver dam analog builder!
Caleb Robbins, PhD
Caleb was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab from 2023-2024. He is now a research scientist at Baylor University. He studies how the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in freshwater ecosystems is linked to watersheds, and how that cycling influences aquatic life and water quality. He is interested in topics spanning food webs and secondary production, terrestrial carbon fate, aquatic-terrestrial linkages, and decomposition. Caleb’s research is increasingly centered on using data science and modeling in predictive frameworks, such as forecasting, to better understand ecological theory and manage future environmental change.
Paul Lecheung
Paul was an undergraduate student at UAF majoring in Fisheries as well as in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. He assisted the lab in 2023-2024 with field sampling at Caribou-Poker Creek, Big Lake, and elsewhere!
Alexa Wing
Alexa is a veterinary student at Colorado State University. She joined us in Fairbanks in summer 2023 on a fellowship working on a project that investigated the prevalence of historical and modern emerging pathogens in freshwater fish in Alaska.
Monica Gosselin-Boeman
Monica worked as a technician working on the Large Wood and Wildfire project in summer 2022.
She also worked in collaboration with Tanana Chiefs Conference through Americorps.
Photo Credits: Banner: Dave Herasimtschuk, Freshwaters Illustrated. Jeff in Tapeats Creek: Joel Sholtes. Jeff's kids: Jeff Muehlbauer. All others by the individual pictured.
