Stephanie M. Carlson is the A.S. Leopold Chair in Wildlife Biology at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

. Her research considers

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

ecology,

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

ecology, and

evolutionary ecology Evolutionary ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can ...

Education

Carlson was the first member of her family to attend college. She earned her undergraduate degree in evolution and ecology at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. She moved across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for her graduate studies, joining the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

for a master's degree. After completing her master's degree in 2002, Carlson joined the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

School for Aquatic and Fisheries Science as a doctoral researcher.

Research

Carson studies how predator-prey relationships and

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human impact on the enviro ...

influences inform the

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

of freshwater fish populations. After graduating, Carlson was awarded a Marie Curie Early Stage Training Fellowship to join the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis. In 2007 Carlson was awarded appointed an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Biological Informatics at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

. She started her independent scientific career at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Here she has specialised on evolution and

loss of biodiversity Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological dive ...

among

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

populations, impacts of

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

and

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

, the ecological and evolutionary impacts of management (water, fishery, hatchery, and protected areas), harvest selection and evolutionary enlightened management. Her research identified that the loss of diversity amongst salmon in managed rivers reduces their ability to respond to climate change. Salmon are usually protected form changing environmental conditions by the portfolio effect; which describes the diversity of salmon migration strategies.

Awards and honours

* 2005 J. Frances Allen Scholarship,

American Fisheries Society The American Fisheries Society (established 1870 in New York City), is the "world’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to strengthening the fisheries profession, advancing fisheries science, and conserving fisheries resources." It is a mem ...

* 2010 Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Award,

American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists (ASN) was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evoluti ...

* 2013 Young Faculty Award * 2014 Rose Hills Innovator Award * 2016 A.S. Leopold Chair in Wildlife Biology

Select publications

* * *

Personal life

Carlson is part of the organisation

500 Queer Scientists 500 Queer Scientists is a visibility campaign for LGBTQ+ people working in the sciences. Queer scientists submit short descriptions of their lives to the organization; these are manually checked and proof-read before being posted to the group's w ...

References

External links

Lab Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson, Stephanie 21st-century American biologists Women herpetologists American women evolutionary biologists American evolutionary biologists Living people American herpetologists University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources faculty University of California, Davis alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women scientists