National Marine Fisheries Service & Sea Grant Joint Fellowship Program

The NMFS-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship Program in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics is designed to help Sea Grant fulfill its broad educational responsibilities, address key workforce needs in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and to strengthen the collaboration between Sea Grant and NMFS. Since 1990, Sea Grant and NMFS have partnered to train students through this joint fellowship program in two specialized areas: population and ecosystem dynamics as well as marine resource economics. Population and ecosystem dynamics involve the study of fish populations and marine ecosystems to better assess fishery stock conditions and dynamics. The goals of this Fellowship Program are to encourage qualified applicants to pursue careers in either population and ecosystem dynamics and stock assessment or in marine resource economics, to increase available expertise related to these fields, to foster closer relationships between university scientists and NMFS, and to provide real-world experience to graduate students and accelerate their career development. Fellows work with both a faculty advisor at their university and a NOAA mentor at one of the NMFS Science Centers, and are required to participate in an annual Research Symposium at different NMFS labs.