The ORAFS Jerry Bouck Memorial Student Scholarship
Application for Scholarships
SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE: December 31 of each year
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION DEADLINE: January 7
CONTACT: Kate Self
The Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society offers the Gerald R. Bouck Memorial Scholarship to honor the legacy of Dr. Gerald R. Bouck, a Fellow and Life Member of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Bouck served as President of the Western Division of AFS and the Bioengineering Section. Throughout his career, Jerry made significant contributions to fisheries science, specifically in the fields of physiology, water quality, toxicology and bio-engineering. His leadership and innovative vision for understanding the relationship effects of water quality to fish physiology and fish health led to the development of important tools to help measure and predict the impacts of water quality on growth and survival of fishes. He promoted the benefits of leadership and participation in AFS and supported international and multidisciplinary engagement
This scholarship is open graduate students pursuing a career in fisheries research relevant to fish physiology, water quality, toxicology, bio-engineering or fish culture. The Scholarship will consider applications from any graduate student who is a current member of the American Fisheries Society (not restricted to ORAFS) and is conducting studies within the aforementioned research disciplines.
APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS
- Student member of AFS
- Graduate student in a relevant field of study
EXPECTATIONS FROM RECIPIENT
- Attend Awards Lunch (virtually) to receive the award
- Commitment to present research study results at an AFS meeting.
- Provide a 1-page “Fishery Feature” to the Piscatorial Press relating to use of scholarship funds.
APPLICATION MATERIALS:
- A cover letter that introduces yourself and includes description of the above minimum qualifications
- A 1-page CV
- A 500-word essay demonstrating how the applicant embodies an innovative and creative mindset for solving challenges in fisheries research.
- College transcripts (undergraduate, plus graduate transcripts if applicable)
- Evidence of participation in AFS.
- One letter of recommendation, at least one of which must be from major professor.
Background – Dr. Gerald R. Bouck
Jerry Bouck promoted innovative thinking to address challenges in fisheries research and management. His proactive approach led to an improved understanding of the relationship of water quality to toxicology, fish physiology, and fish culture. This is the type of innovative thinking that the Gerald R. Bouck Memorial Scholarship will recognize and empower through financial support of successful applicants.
A native of Michigan, Bouck served in the U.S. Air Force as a survival instructor from 1953 to 1957. Following his military service, Bouck enrolled in Central Michigan University, graduating in 1960 with a major in biology and minor in chemistry. He then attended Michigan State University and received an M.S. in fisheries ecology and physiology (1963) and a Ph.D. in physiological ecology and biochemistry (1966).
Immediately after graduation, Bouck joined the Department of Interior laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, where he and his group developed the Western Fish Toxicology Station and provided leadership and research direction to develop water quality criteria for Pacific salmon. Bouck contributed to many innovative techniques, facilities, and equipment for testing allowable levels of (1) pulp and paper trade wastes (Willamette River), (2) thermal pollution (Columbia River Thermal Effects Study), (3) heavy metal mining wastes (Clarke Fork River), and (4) gas supersaturation (Columbia River). His personal research investigated the use of plasma enzymes and other physiological parameters of salmon for the early detection of environmental stress. The laboratory provided consultation to other agencies on various water quality issues and temperature effects on salmon disease. He and his team received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Silver Medal, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gold Medal in 1976 for research on gas supersaturation as it affected the Columbia River system. Dissolved gas supersaturation research was one of Bouck’s great loves, and he helped develop mass transfer models for the removal of dissolved gas supersaturation in packed columns and improved our understanding of the performance of the Michigan pure oxygen columns that were used to remove gas supersaturation. Bouck was a key member of the Joint Task Group that developed the first published standard method for the measurement and reporting of gas supersaturation using the membrane diffusion method.
In 1976, Bouck was hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Western Fisheries Research Center, Seattle, to develop a new research program in physiological ecology. Working with key staff at the lab, Bouck initiated innovative new research at the center’s Marrowstone Island Marine Field Station to identify environmental conditions during freshwater rearing that were adversely affecting the parr-smolt transformation and thus the early marine survival of anadromous salmonids released from federal and state mitigation hatcheries. Bouck also continued and expanded his previous innovative research to solve nitrogen supersaturation problems limiting the health, quality, and survival of juvenile salmonids in freshwater ecosystems. Under Bouck’s leadership, the Marrowstone seawater pumping and ultraviolet treatment systems were enlarged and improved to allow larger-scale studies to be conducted in partnership with other federal and state fisheries research groups including research with scientists at the University of Idaho.
In 1983, Bouck was hired by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) where he remained until his retirement in 1994. He began as a lead to provide funding for increasing the health and productivity of regional salmon hatcheries. In 1984, he became chief of the Biological Research Section and finally a senior scientist as advisor for the administrator on a range of projects, including habitat restoration, hatchery operations, genetics of Endangered Species Act–listed species, and improving fish health. He represented BPA on interactions with the National Academy of Sciences and continued in an advisory role for studies to mitigate gas supersaturation with spill. Under his leadership, BPA provided important funding to develop a wet lab for fish health research at Oregon State University (now the John L. Fryer Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory).
Bouck was a life member of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and served as president of the Western Division (1977), helped to found the Portland Chapter, and served as president of the Bioengineering Section (1987). Through his activities in the Bioengineering Section, Bouck was a leader in application of biological and engineering principles to improve the understanding of hatchery production, habitat restoration, and fish passage. Bouck was awarded a Distinguished Service Award by the Bioengineering Section for his contributions and was instrumental in the coordination of 12 state and federal agencies that resulted in a hugely successful Fisheries Bioengineering Symposium in Portland in 1988. Bouck helped to organize the first World Fisheries Congress in 1993, which now is part of the World Council of Fisheries Societies. In 1994, he was instrumental in developing the program for the Gas Supersaturation Conference to assist managers with mitigation and understanding the implications of supersaturation. Bouck was inducted as an AFS Fellow in Portland in 2015.
In addition to service in AFS, Bouck was a member of Sigma XI, Pacific Fisheries Biologists, the Association for the Sciences for Limnology and Oceanography, the Ecology Society of America, and the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.