Dr. Glenn VanBlaricom

Asst. Unit Leader - Wildlife

Dr. VanBlaricom joined the WACFWRU as its first Assistant Unit Leader for Wildlife Research in 1993, following sixteen years as a research wildlife biologist for the California Sea Otter Project of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Dr. VanBlaricom's primary responsibility at WACFWRU has been to build the Unit's marine wildlife research program. Dr. VanBlaricom has used his expertise and experience to develop a productive program focusing on the ecology of air-breathing vertebrates and their habitats in the coastal marine ecosystems of Washington and Alaska, and the pelagic ecosystems of the North Pacific. Dr. VanBlaricom's program places particular emphasis on fishery-wildlife interactions, and includes active research in both the School of Fisheries (SOF) and the Wildlife Science Program of the College of Forest Resources (CFR) of the University of Washington. Projects under Dr. VanBlaricom's direction are in one of two general categories: Coastal marine ecology and pelagic marine mammal ecology.

Dr. VanBlaricom currently is principal advisor to seven graduate students at the University of Washington. Five are in SOF (three Ph.D students, two Masters students) and two (both Ph.D students) are in CFR. Since his arrival at the WACFWRU, Dr. VanBlaricom has graduated three Masters students (two in SOF, one in CFR) and one Ph.D students (SOF, and has served on supervisory committees of an additional 12 current and former graduate students. Dr. VanBlaricom also offers two courses to upper-division undergraduate science students at the University of Washington, in mare mammalogy and aquatic wildlife ecology.