NOAA Fisheries has announced the appointment of Dr Thomas Hurst as the new program manager for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center''s Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program.
The program conducts research aimed at understanding the influence of physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the environment on the distribution, growth, and survival of economically important fish species in Alaska. The program is based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon.
Dr Hurst is a research fisheries biologist and gained his bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Then followed a master’s and PhD on the recruitment and ecology of overwintering Hudson River striped bass both at Stony Brook University in New York. He joined the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in 2002.
Dr Hurst's research blends field studies and laboratory experimentation to examine the environmental ecology of early life stages of marine species. Much of this work focuses on the pervasive influence of temperature variation on the physiology and ecology of fishes including behaviour, habitat selection, growth energetics and larval ecology.
Dr Hurst serves as the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's representative on NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Working Group and also holds an appointment as a courtesy assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.
