Junior Specialist

Matthew graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Animal Biology with a minor in Education. During his undergrad, he worked as a student assistant in Dr. Fangue’s lab at UC Davis, primarily focusing on the Longfin Smelt culture program at Putah Creek. During this time, he focused largely on tracking morphological data throughout the Longfin Smelts’ captive development. He also aided in completing all tasks for the husbandry of the colony. In addition, he has also pit-tagged both Delta Smelt and Chinook Salmon, as well as performed autopsies to assess tag placement. Before his work at the Fangue lab, he gained environmental toxicology experience through taking a summer session at Bodega Bay Marine Lab, where he performed a cross-species comparison on the developmental effects of phenanthrene on both shore crab and purple sea urchin larvae. After graduation, he joined the Segarra Lab as a Junior Specialist.

Matthew is broadly interested in the conservation of highly vulnerable populations of Californa-native fish species such as Longfin and Delta Smelt, as well as Chinook Salmon. While his previous work has largely focused on fish husbandry, through working at the Segarra lab he plans on building experience in understanding and detailing the impacts that environmental stressors have on the survival of vulnerable fish populations.