Michael F Meyer
He/Him
I am gay and I am an aquatic ecologist, limnologist, and research geographer.//
My “STEM story” has a fair number of adventures. My first foray into the environmental sciences was in 2012, when I interned with the California Tahoe Conservancy and Russian Forest Department via the Tahoe-Baikal Institute. Working at Lake Baikal lit my passion for integrative and synthetic environmental research. Following those internships, I finished my degrees in Biology, Russian Studies, and International Studies at Saint Louis University (St. Louis, Missouri). After undergrad, I worked at Irkutsk State University’s Biological Research Institute, where I studied how Baikal’s amphipods (basically freshwater shrimp) express proteins differently with increasing temperatures. My time living in Siberia ultimately brought me back to the U.S. to pursue a PhD in Environmental Sciences at Washington State University, where I studied how sewage pollution in lakes can reshape ecological communities and foodwebs. During my PhD, I became passionate about incorporating emerging data science and open science techniques into limnological research, and I now work as a Mendenhall Fellow and Research Geographer for the US Geological Survey in the Hydrological Remote Sensing Branch.
Beyond research, I enjoy playing racquetball competitively, exercising, cooking, watching those television shows you only admit to watching/enjoying with people you trust, and socializing with friends.