MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department

📣 Assistant Professor Dr. Murry Burgess was featured in Garden & Gun Magazine, where she shared her love of birds, her research at MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department on how sensory pollutants like artificial light impact songbirds, and how she and her business partner, Lauren Pharr, founded Field Inclusive, a nonprofit supporting nature lovers of all backgrounds. Click the link 🔽 to learn more.

🔗https://t.ly/Z2yvN

📣Congratulations to Professor, Dr. Daryl Jones, on receiving the Dr. Mark E. Keenum Outstanding Extension Faculty Award!👏

This prestigious award recognizes an Extension individual or team for exceptional accomplishments in planning, implementing, and evaluating customer programming that meets the diverse needs of our community. We are incredibly proud of Dr. Jones for this outstanding achievement!

🎣 Fish University Episode #24 is out! Featuring Research Professor Dr. Wes Neal and special guest, BassForecast founder Mike Mehlmann.

Would you use an app that tells you when and how to fish? BassForecast is the world’s #1 bass fishing app, with around 1 million subscribers. Research suggests its predictions can significantly increase your chances on the water. Wes sits down with Mike to explore how the app works, its effectiveness, and more.

🎧 Tune in to see if BassForecast is right for you! Click the 🔗🔽.

🔗 http://nrupodcast.extension.msstate.edu/fish-university
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Dr. Peter Allen, Professor and researcher in the MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, recently received Mississippi State University's highest honor for a university scientist: the 2024 MSU Ralph E. Powe Research Excellence Award. Learn more about Dr. Allen and this prestigious award at the link 🔽.

🔗https://t.ly/GM6x-

📣2024 The Wildlife Society Quiz Bowl Champions! 🏆

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Dr. Christopher Ayers and his students on their BIG win at the annual The Wildlife Society Conference Quiz Bowl this week in Baltimore, MD! They took first place, and we could not be prouder! Way to go, team! Hail State!

🌲 Meet Jimmy Taylor, the 2024 College of Forest Resources Alumni Fellow! With a distinguished career in wildlife research and management, he proudly served our country in the Armed Forces. A Mississippi native, Jimmy earned three degrees from MSU, specializing in wildlife biology. Currently, he’s the assistant director at the USDA National Wildlife Research Center, focusing on reducing human-wildlife conflicts. Since 2002, he’s also been sharing his expertise as an adjunct faculty member at MSU. A member of The Wildlife Society since 1994 and a retired lieutenant colonel, Jimmy is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Join us for Dr. Taylor’s seminar, “Leadership in the Natural Resources Profession,” Friday, October 25, 9:00 am, Tully Auditorium, Thompson Hall

WFA Alumi & Friends kicks off shortly! Cantina Bar of Pratt Street Ale House. Walk just past main entrance to our event next door.

Today is the day! We hope to see you there! 🥂

MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is hosting its annual alumni, students, collaborators, and friends event in conjunction with Annual Professional Conference (https://twsconference.org), this year in Baltimore, MD.

We hope our alumni, collaborators, and students will join us at the Pratt Street Ale House after the conference on Tuesday, Oct. 22 from 7:00 pm to 10 pm for a social gathering, with a beverage and hors d'oeuvres on us!

Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Sandel and his students continue to do great fieldwork! Recently, they visited Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge where the students were trained to assess and prioritize aquatic barriers at road crossings. The Mississippi Aquatic Connectivity Team, which Dr. Sandel co-leads, received training from national ACT Facilitator Shawna Fix. This work supports the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program, aimed at reconnecting freshwater habitats from source to sea. We love the research our professors and students do! Hail State!

Dr. Sandra Correa, Associate Professor of Aquatic Ecology, co-authored a new study on featured in Society for Conservation Biology, titled Translating Science into Actions to Conserve Amazonian Freshwaters. The study outlines three guiding principles for effective planning, highlights opportunities to protect the Amazon’s freshwater ecosystems, and identifies key actions for long-term conservation. This research marks a crucial step toward comprehensive conservation strategies for freshwaters. Learn more about their findings at the link 🔽!

🔗https://t.ly/OQfAA

📢 Just 1 week away...mark your calendars! 📆

MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is hosting its annual alumni, students, collaborators, and friends event in conjunction with Annual Professional Conference (https://twsconference.org), this year in Baltimore, MD.

We hope our alumni, collaborators, and students will join us at the Pratt Street Ale House after the conference on Tuesday, Oct. 22 from 7:00 pm to 10 pm for a social gathering, with a beverage and hors d'oeuvres on us!

Professor Dr. Brian Davis and 16 students had an amazing wildlife field trip to Rockefeller Refuge in coastal Louisiana!

They rode airboats, bird-watched, caught crabs and shrimp, and enjoyed crab boils from their catches! The group visited LSU AgCenter to learn about rice and crawfish farming, explored Cameron Prairie NWR, Southwest Louisiana National Wildlife Refuges Complex, for wetland management lessons, banded black-bellied whistling ducks, and participated in an alligator necropsy with Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist George Meloncon. They also learned about Gulf coastal wetlands restoration and wrapped up with a whooping crane lecture at White Lake Wetlands. Incredible hands-on experiences!

👏 Congratulations to our Professors on their MSU-ORED 2024 Awards!

• Dr. Peter Allen received the prestigious Ralph E. Powe Excellence in Research Award for outstanding faculty.

• Dr. Daryl Jones received the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award for faculty.

• Dr. Mel Boudreau was a finalist for the Emerging Scholar Award.

We are so proud of all our amazing faculty and thrilled for those who were honored!

📣 Emma Schultz Receives 2024 Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award!

Congratulations to our graduate student Emma Schultz for receiving a $1,000 Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective honor society for all academic disciplines. She is one of 200 recipients nationwide! We are so proud of you, Emma!👏
Click 🔽to learn more.

Emma Schultz Receives 2024 Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award Emma Schultz of Starkville, Mississippi, was recently awarded a Love of Learning Award worth $1,000 from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor ...

📣 Alumna Dr. Stephanie Simek is making history as the first female director of the NH Fish and Game Department! 👏

Dr. Simek earned her Ph.D. in Forest Resources from the College of Forest Resources, Mississippi State University with a concentration in MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. We are so proud of her! Congratulations, Dr. Simek! Learn more about her at the link 🔽

New Hampshire Fish and Game hires its first female executive director • New Hampshire Bulletin New Hampshire Fish and Game hires its first woman executive director

Dr. Aqil Tariq has been named in the Top 2% scientists in the US by the /Elsevier's Top 2% Scientists List 2024.

Dr. Tariq specializes in geospatial science and remote sensing. His work spans precision agriculture, forestry, urban planning, and natural hazards, using tools like SAR, UAV data, and Geo-AI. With over 150 publications and collaborations in 25+ countries, his research addresses climate change and ecosystem sustainability. He’s an editor for top journals and has been recognized by the UN and George Mason University for his contributions.

📢 Just 2 weeks away...mark your calendars! 📆

MS State Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is hosting its annual alumni, students, collaborators, and friends event in conjunction with Annual Professional Conference (https://twsconference.org), this year in Baltimore, MD.

We hope our alumni, collaborators, and students will join us at the Pratt Street Ale House after the conference on Tuesday, Oct. 22 from 7:00 pm to 10 pm for a social gathering, with a beverage and hors d'oeuvres on us!

Our Asst. Professor Dr. Mark McConnell spoke at the Cotton Sustainability Summit, addressing leaders across the supply chain about opportunities to enhance in .

Congratulations to our Adjunct Assistant Professor Kris Godwin, Assistant Professors Dr. Melanie Boudreau and Dr. Ray Iglay, PhD student Simone Danisi, and Grace Bellew on their awards from the Mississippi Chapter of The Wildlife Society.

• Kris Godwin received the Sam K. Riffle Award for Conservation Excellence.
• Dr. Melanie Boudreau, Dr. Ray Iglay, and co-authors received the Outstanding Publication Award for their work on ‘A harvest framework for a recovering black bear population’ in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
• Simone Danisi was recognized for the Best Student Presentation at the meeting.
• Grace Bellew was awarded the Les and Kathy Shelton Memorial Annual Undergraduate Scholarship.

Congratulations to all!👏

Dr. Wes Burger’s passion for quail conservation began at age nine while bird hunting with his grandfather, and his dedication has only grown since. His induction into the Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative - NBGI Hall of Fame reflects his lifelong contributions to quail research, conservation, and management. Learn more about our dean at the link below.

🔗https://www.memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=7775

Dr. Dana Morin, Assistant Professor and Scientist, is partnering on a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to study ancestry among wild canines along the . Learn more about this exciting research through the link below 🔽.

🔗 https://rb.gy/3fyx0w