I’m a quantitative stream fish ecologist. I study the mechanisms by which fish behavioral and physiological responses to environmental conditions, such as stream hydrology and temperature, produce patterns in their distribution and abundance.

I spent ten years researching salmonids in Alaska, beginning with graduate research on juvenile Chinook Salmon behavior and population dynamics (including development of the VidSync software for 3-D analysis of fish behavior). My postdoctoral research was the Drift Model Project, a 3-year effort to develop and test better models mathematical of drift feeding, which is the primary feeding method of many stream fishes. In 2017, I moved to the Seattle area to work as a Senior Fisheries Ecologist for South Fork Research, studying steelhead in the Columbia River basin and continuing to study salmon in Alaska. In 2022, I joined the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in eastern WA working on a variety of applicable topics in salmonid ecology.

I am also a minor internet entrepreneur, photographer, and die-hard fly fisherman. I created Troutnut.com in 2003 to bring fly anglers’ accumulated knowledge of aquatic entomology online and get more people interested in the scientific aspects of the fly fishing and related sciences.

This website profiles my academic career. It’s an abbreviated, illustrated, less formal version of my academic curriculum vitae.