Dr. Bruce D.J. Batt Fellowship in Waterfowl Conservation

This fellowship is a way to further his inspiring legacy.

About the fellowship

The purpose of this fellowship is to provide financial assistance to deserving students conducting waterfowl or wetland research in North America.

Dr. Bruce Batt retired as chief biologist for Ducks Unlimited in the United States after a productive 41-year career. He was involved in a greater diversity of issues and a broader number of landscapes important to North American waterfowl than any biologist of his generation.

The competition is open to graduate students based at any North American university.

One award of up to $5,000 per year (Canadian funds) is available to provide personal or research support for the successful applicant. The award is renewable for up to two additional years for PhD students and once for students pursuing a Master’s degree, assuming annual approval of a satisfactory progress report and the need for continuing financial support.

It will be awarded based upon the following criteria:

Applicant qualifications
Scientific soundness of the research proposal
Originality and creativity in study design
Expected contributions to wetland or waterfowl ecology
The importance of the proposed research to conservation
Achievability of the work

International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research

Take your research to the next level. Apply for a Ducks Unlimited fellowship.

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Recent fellowship winners

Caroline Blommel

For her PhD research at the University of Washington, Caroline will develop a harvest assessment framework to inform sustainable management of surf scoters wintering in Washington state.

Surf scoters, like many sea ducks, may be vulnerable to negative impacts of harvest on their abundance due to their survival and reproduction strategies and we often have relatively little data on sea ducks. Despite conservative harvest regulations, surf scoter numbers are declining across their wintering areas, including in Washington state. Caroline will work with management partners in Washington state to:

Develop a harvest assessment framework using an approach known as Management Strategy Evaluation
Evaluate alternative management strategies, taking into account uncertainty in demographic rates
Update estimates of abundance, harvest, and annual survival by analyzing banding and recovery data, field data collected from radio-tagged individuals, aerial survey data, and hunter-reported harvest survey data.

Caroline’s research will inform effective management of surf scoters in the face of changing habitat and environmental conditions, while ensuring sustainable harvest opportunities.

Past fellowship winners

2023-2025: Lindsay Carlson, PhD. Quantifying effects of James Bay staging area habitat conditions on subsequent productivity of Atlantic Brant, University of Saskatchewan.

2022: Kate Sinnott, MSc. Improving establishment and invasion resistance in the restoration of aquatic avian habitat, Utah State University

2019-2021: Casey Setash, PhD. Productivity of breeding waterfowl on working lands in a flood irrigated system, Colorado State University

2017-2018: Kelsey Navarre, MSc. Temporal covariation of demographic rates in lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) and management implications, Colorado State University.

2016: Megan Ross, MSc. Ecological factors affecting midcontinent light goose recruitment, University of Saskatchewan

2013-2015: Christopher Malachowski, PhD. Factors influencing habitat selection, movement patterns, and population dynamics of the engendered Hawaiian duck (Anas wyvilliana) on Kaua‘I, Oregon State University

2011-2012: Mark Wiltermuth, PhD. Interaction of land use and wet-dry cycles on invertebrate populations in prairie wetlands: Implications of waterbird habitat conservation, North Dakota State University

2008-2010: Anne Mini, PhD. Comparative foraging ecology of two sympatric specialized grazers, Dusky Canada and Cackling Geese in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, Oregon State University

Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research

Dr. Bruce D.J. Batt Fellowship in Waterfowl Conservation

About the fellowship

International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research

Recent fellowship winners

Past fellowship winners

Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research

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