• Brenda Konar

I earned a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Chinese Language and Literature from Middlebury College in 2014. After graduating, I worked in economic policy research with the Rural Education Action Program at Stanford University and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, North America at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I then studied the economic implications of fishing gear entanglements of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. At UAF, I am partnering with the North Gulf Oceanic Society to study killer whales using passive acoustic monitoring.

Rice, A.C., Myers, H.J., Olsen, D.W., Pilkington, J.F., Hildebrand, J.A., and Baumann- Pickering, S. 2022. “Spatial and temporal occurrence of killer whale (Orcinus orca) ecotypes in the Gulf of Alaska Temporary Maritime Activities Area from July 2011 to September 2019,” Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, MPL Technical Memorandum #660 under Cooperative Ecosystems Study Unit Cooperative Agreement N62473-21-2-0012 for U.S. Navy, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor, HI. https://www.cetus.ucsd.edu/docs/reports/MPLTM660-2022.pdf

Myers, H.J., Olsen, D.W., Matkin, C.O., Horstmann, L.A., Konar, B. 2021. Passive acoustic monitoring of killer whales (Orcinus orca) reveals year-round distribution and residency patterns in the Gulf of Alaska. Scientific Reports 11: 20284. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99668-0

Myers, H.J., and M.J. Moore. 2020. Reducing effort in the U.S. American lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery to prevent North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) entanglements may support higher profits and long-term sustainability. Marine Policy 118: 104017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104017

Myers, H.J., M.J. Moore, M.F. Baumgartner, S.W. Brillant, S.K. Katona, A.R. Knowlton, L. Morissette, H.M. Pettis, G. Shester, and T.B. Werner. 2019. Ropeless fishing to prevent large whale entanglements: Ropeless Consortium report. Marine Policy 107: 103587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103587

• Marine mammal biology
• Passive acoustic monitoring
• Marine policy

• 2023 Dean’s Outstanding Graduate Student Recognition Award
• 2022-2023 Robert and Kathleen Byrd Award
• 2022-2023 Dieter Family Research Scholarship
• 2022-2023 Coastal Marine Institute Graduate Student Funding Award
• 2022-2023 EPSCoR Travel Award
• 2022 Murie Memorial Student Award
• 2022 Calvin J. Lensink Award
• 2021-2022 EPSCoR Travel Award
• 2021 Robert and Kathleen Byrd Award
• 2021-2022 UAF Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity Mentor Award
• 2021-2022 Jessie O'Bryan McIntosh Scholarship
• 2021-2022 Robert and Judy Belous Global Change Research Endowment
• 2021-2022 Ken Turner Memorial Fellowship
• 2021 EPSCoR Rolling Travel Award
• 2020 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, Office of Naval Research
• 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (declined to accept NDSEG)
• 2019 Robert and Kathleen Byrd Award 

• PADI Open Water Diver
• AAUS Scientific Diver
• CPR/First Aid

• Guest Student, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution