Biosketch: Steven Walters

Steven Walters is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Urban Ecology Research Laboratory, Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington.  A landscape ecologist, Steven’s research has focused on applying spatial analytic, modeling and GIS techniques to exploring effects of spatial pattern on ecological flows and interconnections across landscapes.  His primary interest lies in understanding how complex interactions between the various biotic and abiotic components of ecological systems drive the dynamics of such systems.  Prior to arriving at the University of Washington, he worked as a post-doctoral ecologist with the US Environmental Protection Agency in Narragansett, RI.  There he specialized in examining spatial dependence in risks to wildlife populations, using various spatial modeling approaches (e.g., individual-based, metapopulation, and graph-theoretic modeling).  He also worked as a research scientist with the University of Maryland’s Department of Geography and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, exploring uncertainties in land cover classification derived from remotely sensed imagery and examining the propagation of such uncertainties in models of watershed-level nutrient concentrations.

Steven earned his Doctorate in ecology from the Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences Program at the University of Maryland, under the mentorship of Dr. Robert H. Gardner: his dissertation research examined scale-dependent interactions between organisms and landscape pattern in determining dispersal success.  His studies as a Master of Science student at Purdue University centered on the social behavior of grey wolves (Canis lupus).  Lastly, on a quite different prior career path, he earned a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon University in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, focusing in his senior honor’s thesis on the cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms of dreaming.