Gayle Zydlewski

University of Maine
5741 Libby Hall Room 110A
University of Maine
Orono ME 04469-5741
Phone: 207.581.1422
Fax: 207.581.1426
Email Gayle Zydlewski

Dr. Gayle Zydlewski has been the Director of the Maine Sea Grant College Program since July 1, 2018. Zydlewski has more than 20 years of academic experience as a researcher and faculty member at UMaine, Washington State University, and University of Massachusetts. She also served as the supervisory fishery biologist at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Longview, Washington.

She has been the Graduate Coordinator of the Marine Biology Program at the UMaine School of Marine Sciences since 2016. Zydlewski serves on the Maine Ocean School Board of Trustees and the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station Research Council. She is a faculty member of the flagship Mandela Washington Fellows Public Management Institute at UMaine.

Zydlewski’s research seeks to understand the impacts of environmental conditions on fish behavior, physiology, and their relationship with population dynamics. Her most recent research focuses on shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon in the Penobscot River and the broader Gulf of Maine. This includes incorporating effects of various components of the ecosystems (prey presence, interspecific interactions, and water chemistry) on fish behavior and population dynamics. She also leads a research program focused on the environmental effects of tidal power development in partnership with state and national natural resource regulators and marine renewable energy industry partners in the U.S. and Canada. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 papers in journals and conference proceedings.

Ph.D – Oceanography, University of Maine