Dr. Briana Abrahms
Endowed Chair in Natural History & Conservation
abrahms [at] uw.edu
Dr. Briana Abrahms is an Assistant Professor in the University of Washington Department of Biology, and holds the inaugural Boersma Endowed Chair of Natural History and Conservation. She earned a B.Sc. in Physics from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. Prior to joining the UW, she was a U.S. Presidential Management Fellow with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate and Ecosystems Group. See the Abrahms Lab website to learn more.
Interests
Dr. Abrahms’ research brings a unique crossover between terrestrial and marine systems to the fields of behavioral and movement ecology and conservation biology. Her research program integrates animal bio-logging technology, earth observation, and big data analytics to advance understanding of the causes and consequences of wildlife responses to global change. From marine mammals in the open ocean to large carnivores in the African savanna, research in the Abrahms Lab encompasses studies on sentinel species around the globe to understand the effects of global change on wildlife ecology and conservation. Beyond basic research, Dr. Abrahms works closely with stakeholders, managers and policy-makers to conduct user-informed science and develop innovative tools for conservation. Her work has been integrated into landscape planning for carnivore conservation in southern Africa and policies to reduce large whale mortalities along the U.S. West Coast, including the implementation of Whale Safe, a real-time tool to reduce whale-ship collisions. She is an affiliate researcher with Botswana Predator Conservation, and a member of the Southern California Blue Whale Ship Strike Working Group, the California Whale Entanglement/Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, and the West Coast Gray Whale Unusual Mortality Event Working Group.
Her research has been published in top-ranked ecology and broad-audience journals, and has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including The Atlantic, Scientific American, the Washington Post, and the BBC.
Selected Publications:
See a full list of Dr. Abrahms’s publications here.