Dr. Chris Vandergoot | Director, Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System

Dr. Chris Vandergoot is the director of the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System and associate professor at Michigan State University. Prior to his current position, Chris served as a research fishery biologist at the Lake Erie Biological Station, Great Lakes Science Center, US Geological Survey located in Sandusky, Ohio, supervisor of fish biology at the Sandusky Fisheries Research Station, and a fisheries biologist on Lake Erie with the Ohio Department of Natural Resource, Division of Wildlife. As a fisheries researcher and biologist, he is interested in understanding and quantifying the population dynamics of native Great Lakes fish populations, particularly Lake Erie percids. He primarily focuses on conducting field-based studies that describe the ecological and demographic processes of wild fish populations for stock assessment modeling purposes. Specific areas of interest include examining stock discreteness, rates of iteoparity (i.e., frequency of reproductive cycles), spawning site fidelity, spawning phenology, migratory behavior, and estimating mortality rates (i.e., fishing and natural). He has also conducted numerous studies evaluating the efficiency and performance of fishery-independent sampling gears and methodologies. Chris received his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Statue University, his master’s degree from Tennessee Technological University and doctorate from Michigan State University