Jeff earned undergraduate degrees in oceanography and zoology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After graduate school he spent 4 years investigating interactions between zooplankton and physics in the Atlantic Ocean at the University of Miami before first joining the AFSC’s Recruitment Processes Program in 1990, and then becoming the Program Manager in 2001, succeeding Art Kendall.
Since 1990 Jeff has worked in all three of Alaska's large marine ecosystems trying to understand how weather and climate affect the distribution and abundance of zooplankton prey for planktivorous fish, seabirds, and mammals. In doing this, Jeff has been a tireless champion of research collaborations, co-directing with Dr. Phyllis Stabeno (Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory) NOAA’s Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) program and initiating a new interdisciplinary line of funding within NOAA for Climate Regimes and Ecosystem Productivity. Most recently, he and Dr. Stabeno worked with AFSC scientists Mike Sigler, Ed Farley, and Kerim Aydin to form an alliance between FOCI and the Center's Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment and Resource Ecology and Ecosystem Modeling programs. One goal of the alliance is to better coordinate the Center’s recruitment processes and ecosystems research. Jeff also serves on the national Bering Sea Project Science Advisory Board.
The Center is fortunate to have someone of Jeff's stature step in to take on the responsibility of leading the RACE Division. We welcome him into his new position.
