Jake Walsh
Freshwater ecology; lake stewardship/management; invasion ecology; community-engaged scholarship
Background & Expertise
Jake Walsh, PhD, is an assistant professor of aquatic ecology in the University of Minnesota Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, a research fellow at the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC), and affiliated with the Minneapolis-St. Paul Urban Long-term Ecological Research program (LTER). His work focuses on lake ecology and stewardship, especially in understanding and managing lake biological communities and ecosystem services with state, local and tribal partners. His lab works on a range of lake management challenges (e.g., water quality, aquatic invasive species, biodiversity), identifying shared research and management goals with partners to strengthen relationships between people and lakes. In addition to his management partners, Walsh collaborates with social scientists affiliated with MAISRC, LTER, and IonE to better understand how people value and steward lakes. Walsh is a descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Tribal and Indigenous perspectives and engagement are increasingly foundational to his research and teaching as he builds relationships with Native communities in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.
16 New Affiliates Join IonE's University-Wide Sustainability Network
A physician in Minneapolis who studies how climate change affects children’s health. A psychologist in Duluth who is seeking to understand the impact of new pressures, like AI data centers, on people’s well being. These two University of Minnesota scholars work in different disciplines, on campuses separated by hundreds of miles – but this fall, they'll be connected through a network that spans the entire University.