Dr. Erin Peterson Internship Award in Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Sciences

History

Erin Peterson, was born in 1992 in Bellevue, Washington.  She graduated in 2010 and continued her studies at Oregon State University, earning a BS in Fisheries and Wildlife in 2014 while cultivating a love of stream ecology. She attended South Dakota State University, earning a Master of Science degree (2017). 

Erin earned a Doctorate in Wildlife Ecology in the Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Conservation Biology at the University of Maine in 2022.  Her dissertation was focused on fish ecology and conservation in the Penobscot River.  During that time, she was renowned among her peers and colleagues for her passion for conservation and her work ethic.  She also exhibited an exemplary commitment to her family and became a new parent during her graduate program.  Erin also volunteered widely both in the University and the community at large.  Erin secured a fisheries biologist position in the State of Washington where she continued her professional and personal excellence. 

Erin lost her life in the line of duty in 2023 doing what she loved. She is remembered by FWCS faculty and staff as one of the most talented, promising, and self-motivated undergraduate scholars to have called our department home.  Though she excelled in the classroom, she shone most brightly when actively pursuing research. Her name greatly honors this new endowment, which will provide new generations of scholars the opportunity to experience active research through internship opportunities and chart their own courses, much as Erin did before them.