Melissa A. Haltuch, Ph.D.

Background

Dr. Melissa Haltuch (B.S. 1996; M.S. 1998; Ph.D. 2008) joined the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) in 2022 to lead the Status of Stocks and Multispecies Assessments Program (SSMA). Before arriving at the AFSC, Melissa spent 15 years with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, where she served on the Pacific Fisheries Management Council Science and Statistical Committee and pursued details as the Acting Fish Ecology Division Director and the supervisor of the Integrated Fisheries Stock Assessment Team. 

She is currently an Associate Affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS). As a student, she was selected as a Knauss Fellow with the U.S. Department of State, Office of Marine Conservation, and a NOAA Fisheries Sea Grant graduate fellow in population dynamics at the University of Washington. Melissa also serves as Vice-Co-Chair of the North Pacific Research Board Science Panel. In 2021, she was awarded a NOAA Bronze Medal for major advances in linking environmental variability to groundfish recruitment on the West Coast. She has also taught stock assessment courses at the SAFS, in Latin America, and for FAO.

Current Research

Melissa has conducted statistical age-structured stock assessments and supporting statistical data analyses for over 15 years, publishing over 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts and assessments. She conceived of and recruited the early members of the Pacific Sablefish Transboundary Assessment Team. This international coalition is conducting the first transboundary analyses of sablefish data in the NE Pacific to support a spatially structured Management Strategy Evaluation. In pursuit of the foundational science needed to implement NOAA’s Climate Science Strategy, Melissa leads efforts to build scientific teams of stock assessment scientists, statisticians, oceanographers, and ecologists that generate projects and publications that directly inform stock assessments for fishery management. She is particularly interested in co-developing climate research products for use in operational advice to fishery stakeholders and managers, working long-term with stakeholders to build frameworks for incorporating climate and ecosystem work into management advice.