Matthew Stefanak

Matt Stefanak is a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and is based at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, MD. He is advised by Dr. Ryan Woodland and is broadly interested in the trophic ecology of juvenile fish in the Chesapeake Bay and its coastal margins. For his dissertation work, he is focused on how the efflux of estuarine waters from the Chesapeake Bay mouth into the nearshore coastal habitat of the Atlantic Ocean influences the biological communities in this estuary-marine transition zone. This research can be applied to both academic and environmental management initiatives, including the refinement of ecosystem-based fishery management for several fish species of ecological and commercial interest, which travel through or reside near the Bay mouth during seasonal migrations. Matt graduated from Middlebury College in 2019 with a joint B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies and began his Ph.D. in the fall of 2021. Matt is involved with the UMCES student chapter of the American Fisheries Society, and, outside of research, enjoys reading, working out, playing with his two cats, and all types of outdoor recreation.