Robert Lackey

Dr. Robert T. Lackey, a U.S./Canada dual citizen, is a scientist with extensive experience with natural resource and environmental policy issues.  He is an internationally recognized expert on salmon science and policy.  Currently residing in Corvallis, Oregon, he is professor of fisheries science at Oregon State University.  In 2008, he retired after 27 years with the Environmental Protection Agency’s 300+ person national research laboratory in Corvallis where he served as Deputy Director, Associate Director for Science, and in other senior leadership positions.  He was Deputy Director of the laboratory for 11 years.

Starting with a 1964 summer job working in a California fish hatchery, Dr. Lackey has been involved with an array of natural resource issues from various positions in government and academia.  His professional assignments involved diverse aspects of natural resource and environmental management, but were mainly at the interface between science and policy.  He has published over 100 articles in scientific journals and authored or edited 5 books.  He is best known for his work in synthesizing realistic and relevant scientific assessments of politically divisive natural resource and environmental problems.  Dr. Lackey has presented hundreds of invited speeches on aquatic and terrestrial ecology, freshwater and marine fisheries, salmon science and policy, climate change, acid rain, biological diversity, ecological policy, and clarifying the proper role of science in public policy.

Dr. Lackey’s international professional experience includes U.S. Government assignments in Egypt, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Canada, and the Russian Far East.  He has served as a consultant or reviewer to many government agencies, private sector organizations, and national and international philanthropic foundations, including the Wild Salmon Ecosystems Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He has testified before the U.S. Congress as an expert witness and has often briefed elected officials, political appointees, and senior government policy makers regarding the best available science relevant to various contentious issues.

Dr. Lackey has long been an educator, having taught at five North American universities. He continues to teach a graduate course in ecological policy at Oregon State University.  He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Northern British Columbia during the 1999-2000 academic year.  Dr. Lackey holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Science from Colorado State University and was selected as the 2001 Honored Alumnus by CSU’s College of Natural Resources.  He is a Certified Fisheries Scientist, a Fellow of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, and a Fellow of the American Fisheries Society.

In 2008 Dr. Lackey was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s highest honor — the Gold Medal — for exceptional contributions in strengthening the role of science in ecological policy.  He has received numerous other professional awards over his career.  In 2011, he was selected to present a plenary address at the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, an international conference attended by over 4,000 fisheries and aquatic scientists and managers.