MSU Road Trip features our research!

Our Group

We are a collection of ecologists of all stripes - behavioral, evolutionary, aquatic, and more - who study the lives of fishes. We focus on species of conservation concern (invasive and threatened). Through research we seek to discover how fishes use physical, chemical, and biological information to navigate to, evaluate, and select habitats and mates, across all life phases. Through outreach and engagement we strive to translate our findings into implementable conservation practices by participating in agency-led planning and working to design and test novel approaches based on manipulating animal behavior. We seek students and collaborators who embrace the land-grant institutional philosophy of discovery guided by science and active engagement with decision-makers and the public to maximize the utility of our findings.

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Lab News

• (27 August 2021) Kandace Griffin, Ph.D. student, wrote a Student View describing her surgeries to implant acoustic tags into the sea lamprey. Check it out!


• (27 August 2021) The Applied Behavioral Ecology Lab was featured in the MSUToday Article "My Spartan Summer." Read it here!


• (13 August 2021) Taylor Haas has successfully defended his M.S. thesis! Congratulations, Taylor! We can't wait to see where you go next!


• (21 July 2021) Congrats to Mikaela Hanson for successfully defending her M.S. thesis AND on her acceptance into the Ph.D. program at University of Texas - Arlington! We are so proud of you, Mikaela!


• (26 February 2021) M.S. student Emily Mensch co-chaired the first virtual FW Graduate Student Symposium. The event was a huge success, Emily!


• (5 February 2021) Dr. Michael Wagner is featured in MSU's "Futures" article, discussing the ongoing work to create a FishPass device to maximize river connectivity and minimize sea lamprey impact. Read the full article here!


• (19 October 2020) M.S. student Emily Mensch is selected as a Michigan Sea Grant-MSU Extension Graduate Fellow. Congrats, Emily!


• (16 March 2020) Ph.D. student Kandace Griffin is awarded the Vera M. Wallach Fellowship. Way to go Kandace!


• (21 Feb 2020) M.S. student Emily Mensch wins the best prospective talk award at the Graduate Student Symposium. Way to bring another win to the lab, Emily!


• (1 October 2019) Ph.D. student Kandace Griffin is selected as a Michigan Sea Grant-MSU Extension Graduate Fellow. Yay Kandace!


• (17 May 2019) Ph.D. student Kandace Griffin is selected to receive an Academic Achievement Graduate Fellowship. Congrats Kandace!


• (12 Mar 2019) M.S. student Mikaela Hanson gives an invited research presentation to the USGS Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, MI.


• (22 Feb 2019) M.S. student Mikaela Hanson wins the best prospective talk award at the Graduate Student Symposium. Congrats Mikaela!


• (31 Jan 2019) Michael attends the first meeting of the science team that will assist the GLFC in the development of a research plan for FishPass - a new facility to study selective fish passage in Traverse City, MI. Very exciting project!


• (24 Jan 2019) Former post-doc Tom Luhring has accepted a faculty position at Wichita State University. Way to go Tom!


• (7 Jan 2019) New Ph.D. student Kandace Griffin officially joins the lab. Welcome Kandace! Woot!