Rate My Professor Peter Westley

Peter Westley is the Lowell A. Wakefield Chair in Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and an associate professor in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He earned a B.S. in Fisheries from the University of Washington in 2004, an M.S. in Fisheries from the University of Washington in 2007, a Ph.D. in Biology from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2012, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Fisheries at the University of Washington in 2012. Westley joined the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2014 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2020, and appointed to the Wakefield Chair in 2021.

Westley's research examines how fishes respond and adapt to abrupt environmental change across biological organization levels through field, laboratory, meta-analysis, and modeling approaches. Core interests include phenotypic plasticity, life history evolution, dispersal and philopatry, contemporary evolution, aquatic invasions, colonization, and eco-evolutionary dynamics. He leads the Salmonid Evolutionary Ecology & Conservation Lab, investigating Pacific salmon colonization of Arctic rivers, northern pike invasions in Southcentral Alaska, hatchery effects on wild salmon diversity, and climate impacts on salmon. Awards include the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Excellence in Service Award (2021), Excellence in Advising Award (2019), and finalist status for the 2022 edX Prize for his online course FISH 320: Salmon, People, Place. Select publications are 'Tidal gradients, fine-scale homing, and a potential cryptic ecotype of wild spawning pink salmon' (Molecular Ecology, 2023), 'Genomics reveal the origins and current structure of a genetically depauperate freshwater species in its introduced Alaskan range' (Evolutionary Applications, 2023), 'Hypoxia vulnerability in the salmon watersheds of Southeast Alaska' (Science of the Total Environment, 2023), 'Premature mortality observations among Alaska’s Pacific salmon during record heat and drought in 2019' (Fisheries, 2022), and 'Documentation of en route mortality of summer chum salmon in the Koyukuk River, Alaska' (Ecology & Evolution, 2020). His work informs salmon conservation and management amid environmental shifts.