Eileen Setzler-Hamilton Memorial Scholarship
The Eileen Setzler-Hamilton Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student currently enrolled in a fisheries science or closely related curriculum at a university within the three-state AFS Tidewater (TAFS) region who has displayed a commitment to excellence in research, teaching, professional undertakings, public education, and community service. This award was created in 2003 to remember Dr. Eileen Setzler-Hamilton, a long-time member of the American Fisheries Society and fourth president (1989) of the TAFS. This award really is about a “coastal scientist enthusiast” who passionately engages with other students and the public out of the beauty they feel privileged to witness each day in the field. That, was Eileen.
Both first-time and previous applicants who have not won may apply. Recipients receive a certificate and cash scholarship (amount determined year-to-year), which is presented during the annual meeting awards banquet.
Past Awardees
2025: Sally Dowd
- A third-year PhD student in the Janet Nye lab at UNC Chapel Hill who is leveraging advanced quantitative methodology and an unconventional data source to elucidate the relationship of estuarine and marine predators to their environment.
2024: Shannon Smith
- A doctoral candidate at the College of William & Mary's School of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science under the direction of Mary Fabrizio interested in how fishes interact with their environment on multiple spatial and temporal scales, and how these interactions shape community structure, abundance, and movement/dispersal.
2023: Andrew McMains
- A doctoral student working under the direction of Jim Morley at East Carolina University studying the ecological impacts of dredging on coastal habitats.
2022: Maddie Johnson
- A master’s student advised by Jim Morley at East Carolina University studying habitat use and hatch dates of juvenile sheepshead in North Carolina estuaries.
2021: Maddie Farmer
- A master’s student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore working under the direction of Brad Stevens studying oyster larvae recruitment in the Maryland Coastal Bays.
2020: Vaskar Nepal
- A doctoral student in the Department of Fisheries, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, through the College of William & Mary, advised by Mary Fabrizio, examining expand our understanding of the biological processes that contribute to the invasion success of blue catfish and to use this information to provide managers with model-based evaluations of estuarine habitats that are likely to support blue catfish.
2019: Riley Gallagher
- A master’s student at North Carolina State University under the advisement of Jeff Buckel investigating cobia stock structure and population dynamics in North Carolina and Virginia.
2018: Brendan Runde
- A doctoral student at North Carolina State University under the advisement of Jeff Buckel investigating varying management approaches to offshore reef fish species.
2017: Willy Goldsmith
- A doctoral candidate at the College of William & Mary at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, co-advised by Andrew Scheld and John Graves, combining biotelemetry with econometrics to quantify the biological impacts and human dimensions of the recreational fishery for Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) along the U.S. East Coast.
2016: Rebecca Peters
- A master’s student in the Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore under the guidance of Paulinus Chigbu investigating the ecology of juvenile black sea bass, Centropristis striata, in the Maryland Coastal Bays
2014: David Kazyak (1st place), Chad Smith (2nd place)
2013: Andre Buchheister (1st place), Cory Janiak (2nd place)
2012: Steve Midway
2011: Jacob Boyd
2010: Cecilia Krahforst (1st place), Ryan Woodland and Jacob Boyd (honorable mention)
**Scholarship not awarded annually until 2010 due to funding limitations.**
2005: Janet Nye
2002: Jennifer Cudney