Studying Freshwater Systems
The letter S was selected to represent water’s connection to science, studies, students, and the School of Freshwater Sciences.
“S” is for Science, School, Study... Meet the next generation of water scientists at Milwaukee’s flagship institution of higher learning—the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences. What goes on inside this building? What are the stories of the students, scientists, and researchers who affectionately refer to their interdisciplinary institution as “SFS”?
They’re exploring the Great Lakes at our doorstep—like Jeff Houghton mapping the depths, Liz Ulrich surveying fish “habitat hotels,” and Graceanne Tarsa diving to collect invasive and sometimes elusive round gobies. They’re watchdogs for public and environmental health—like Katie Schulz researching the emerging contaminant PFAS, Jill McClary Gutierrez and Emily Koster studying patterns in sediment plumes, Kyle Poplar running trials on zebrafish to test toxicity, and Becky Curtis exploring nanomaterials in aquatic environments. And they’re at the forefront of new frontiers of research—like Dr. Dong-Fang Deng innovating new aquaculture feeds, Dr. James Price accounting for the unaccounted for to inform better water policy, and Dr. Ryan Newton discovering whole new communities of sewer microbes never before known to science. Not to mention always-explorer Dr. Val Klump on a mission to save the Great Lakes.
SFS is a dynamic center of research educating both graduate and undergraduate students. Other labs study chemicals in water, organisms from the Great Lakes, weather, climate science, and even DNA from sewer microbes.
Bright Minds Exploring Diverse Water Realms
Meet Jeff. As a boy he fished with his father and scuba-dived with his twin brother in the lakes of northern Wisconsin. Jeff became scuba-certified at age 13 and always wanted to find a career that would involve exploring underwater—inspired by Discovery Channel videos that revealed an amazing universe of life below the waves. At the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences as a research specialist in the lab of Dr. John Janssen, Jeff has found a role that enables him to use his passion and ingenuity to explore beneath the waters of our Great Lakes.
Meet Becky. She’s conducting doctoral research on how nanomaterials impact aquatic organisms at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences in the lab of Dr. Rebecca Klaper. Becky went back to school after a long track record working in sustainability, including for the City of Milwaukee to support its recycling programs. But she chased her life’s dream to do research in aquatic science. Excited about the environmental health implications of Dr. Klaper’s research, Becky reached out and soon found a place working in her lab. “It really is a dream come true,” she says.
Meet Dong-Fang. She’s a nutritionist researching better fish feeds to support the aquaculture industry and conservation efforts. Dong-Fang works with students ranging from high school interns to international postgraduates. Her dynamic team learns from one another as they tend to many species of fish—including yellow perch, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, tilapia, and even lake sturgeon—in the School of Freshwater Sciences’ extensive aquaculture lab.
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