Jens Hegg

I am an assistant professor of Biology at Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. My academic background includes a PhD from the University of Idaho and a Fulbright post-doc in the Brazilian Amazon.

My scientific interests are in the ecology of animal movement and migration, specifically the trade-offs that animals must balance to optimize their fitness within a complex and changing environment full of competition from other organisms and rapidly changing evironmental conditions.

Within this focus on life history and migration I use isotopic tracers, bio-energetic modeling, growth trajectories and geospatial modelling techniques to understand the selective pressures that shape the life-history of fish populations across the landscape.

I maintain active research in several areas: Amazonian sawfish movement and life-history, Fall Chinook salmon in the Snake River of Idaho, giant migratory catfish in the Amazon basin of Brazil, geologic prediction of strontium isoscapes, and data sonification and virtualization for data exploration, artistic expression and scientific outreach.

This video is a funny and instructive introduction to me and the basics of my work.

Outside ecology I have many interests, coming to academia on a circuitous path, starting with a B.A. in Biology from Macalester College in 2000. In the intervening years I worked in the field studying endangered river mussels in the Hornbach Lab, the distribution of non-game fish with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency among others. I also spent significant time working in research and development laboratories; in renewable bio-plastics with Natureworks LLC, and designing new coronary stents with Boston Scientific which lead to 4 US patents.

March 2016