Map of the Upper Mississippi River System

Special publication: To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the MRRC a series of invited speakers have synthesized the current and potential future state of the upper Mississippi River ecosystem. These presentations will be published in a special issue of the journal Hydrobiologia. Pre-publication orders of this special issue $64.50 per copy are currently being accepted with pre-registration or by mail. Please make checks payable to the MRRC and mail to:

Mississippi River Research Consortium

c/o Dr. Neal Mundahl
Department of Biology 
Winona State University 
P.O. Box 5838 
Winona, Minnesota 55987 

2012 Keynote Speaker

Dr. Christopher Jerde

Christopher Jerde is a research assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative specializing in the application of quantitative methods to resource management of invasive species. He earned his Bachelors (1998) and Masters (2002) of Science from Montana State University and received his PhD from the University of Alberta’s Centre for Mathematical Biology (2008).
Working with an interdisciplinary team of scientists, Dr. Jerde is applying a new surveillance approach that uses molecular techniques to detect the presence of rare species. In 2009, Jerde and his colleagues reported the presence of bighead and silver carp in the upper Chicago area waterway system, which has spurred substantial conservation management actions to prevent invasion of the Great Lakes. Additionally, he has on-going projects to evaluate invasive species and pathogen contamination from organisms in trade and further advance the environmental DNA approach being used as a method of detection for invasive, threatened, and endangered species.
In his spare time, Dr. Jerde enjoys fly-fishing and occasionally ruining a good walk by golfing.

Welcome to the Mississippi River Research Consortium (MRRC) homepage.  MRRC is a private, non-profit organization supported by its members and by cooperating agencies, institutions, and corporations. Membership is open to all interested parties.  MRRC members are scientists, river managers, teachers, students, and individuals from private business and the general public who want to encourage both pure and applied research on the water and land resources of the Mississippi River and its watershed. 

Other purposes of the organization include supporting organized research effort on the Mississippi River, establishing and encouraging communication among river scientists, the wider scientific community, and the public, encouraging cooperation among institutions (sharing of facilities,etc.), functioning as an advisory group, and providing an annual meeting where research results can be presented, common problems can be discussed, information can be disseminated, and river researchers can become acquainted with one another. 

A proceedings of the annual meeting containing abstracts of presentations are published each year.  The annual meeting usually occurs in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday and Friday of the third or fourth week in April.

A Call for Papers is issued in November and registration materials and a Meeting Program are distributed in March.  Questions can be addressed to any one of the four officers on the Board. 

Students, please note three (3) student travel scholarships ($200 each) are available for the 2011 conference. Students interested in competing for one of these scholarships should submit a scholarship application. Application deadline: February 19, 2011.

President Dr. Susan Romano Department of Biological Sciences Western Illinois University-Quad Cities Phone: (309) 298-1752 email: S-Romano2@wiu.edu	Vice President Dr. Nathan De Jager US Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Phone: (608) 781-6232 email: ndejager@usgs.gov http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/staff/bios/nrd0.html
Treasurer Dr. Neal Mundahl Department of Biology  Winona State University  P.O. Box 5838  Winona, Minnesota 55987  email: nmundahl@winona.edu	Secretary Dr. Eric Strauss Department of Biology University of Wisconsin - La Crosse 1725 State Street Phone: (309) 298-1752 email: strauss.eric@uwlax.edu

http://www.ngrrec.org/mrrc/
Last updated: April 26 , 2012
Maintained by: csmith@tnc.org