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

Lindsay Carlson

At the University of Saskatchewan, Lindsay’s PhD project will examine how behaviour, habitat, and climate conditions across the annual cycle impact breeding success of Atlantic brant.

Atlantic brant have experienced significant habitat loss on both their wintering (mid-Atlantic coast) and staging grounds (James Bay coast) over the past 100 years and, in recent decades, their population has fluctuated dramatically, likely due to variation in the number of young produced. Lindsay will use high-resolution data from GPS-ACC transmitters to examine how Atlantic brant movements and behaviour, eelgrass and saltmarsh habitat quality, and climate and weather conditions in James Bay staging areas influence brant reproductive success.

Lindsay is working closely with Cree land users to collect James Bay data, and with Cree research organizations, governments, and stakeholders to drive research questions. By discovering relationships between habitat use and brant reproductive success, Lindsay’s research will be useful for developing targeted conservation plans for the James Bay coast.

Past fellowship winners

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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