Dr. Russell Brown was born in Farmingdale, New York and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He earned his Bachelor’s in Fisheries and Wildlife from Cornell University and his Master’s degree and PhD. from Michigan State University. In 1994, Dr. Brown began working at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center on groundfish surveys. He also was involved with Atlantic salmon and was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the U.S. delegation to NASCO. As of this interview in 2016, he is the Population Dynamics Branch Chief at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Jay Burnett was born in 1948 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Boston University, and his bachelor’s degree in Fisheries as well as his master’s degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He spent his career in the Age and Growth Unit, ten years as the head. He participated in many survey cruises throughout the years. Mr. Burnett retired from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in 2010.

Mike Corbett was born in 1940 in Quincy, Massachusetts, and studied engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He worked as a draftsman as a Northeastern co-op student for Murray and Tregurtha in Quincy, and after graduation worked in industry at General Electric, before moving to Gloucester and working as an ocean engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. He spent 29 years working in Exploratory Fisheries before moving to the private sector again.

James Crossen was born in Boston in 1926 and served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. This experience helped him during the 1,200+days he was at sea during his long career. He began his career in 1955 with the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries which later became the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Linda Despres was born in Brunswick, Maine and grew up on her father’s boat with her brothers learning about tuna fishing and how to navigate the sea. This ignited a passion for marine wildlife as well as being outdoors exploring nature. She graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in zoology with a minor in wildlife biology. She began working at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in 1973.  She logged over 1,200 days at sea on the Albatross IV as well as many days at sea on foreign fleet vessels.

Michael Fogarty was born in 1951 in Fairbanks, Alaska where his father was stationed in the Army during the Korean War. His parents returned to their native Rhode Island when he was six years old. He developed an interest in marine science which led to him pursing his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Fogarty studied marine biology and earned his PhD degree at the URI School of Oceanography. Upon graduation, he began working at the Rhode Island Department of Environment Management with a focus on the lobster and crab fisheries.

Born in 1926, Ray Fritz grew up in Detroit, Michigan and attended Michigan State College. He graduated in 1953 with a Bachelors in Biology and Zoology. He began his career with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as a biologist at the Woods Hole Lab in 1956. During his time in Woods Hole, he spent time at-sea on the R/V Albatross III and R/V Albatross IV. He served as Chief Scientist on both vessels. In the late 1960's, he moved to Headquarters in Washington where he worked with the Federal Aid Program and served as Chief of Law Enforcement for National Marine Fisheries Service. Mr.

Marvin Grosslein was born October 24, 1929 in Seattle. He grew up in Minnesota where a summer job with the Minnesota Conservation Department sparked his interest in fisheries science. He graduated from the University of Minnesota before attending Cornell University for his PhD. For his doctoral thesis, Dr. Grosslein developed a survey program that would provide a basis for estimating catches of all species. His graduate work took him to Woods Hole in the summer of 1959. He began full time in 1961 after completing his PhD.

Jason Link is Senior Scientist for Ecosystem-based Management for the National Marine Fisheries Service, still sitting at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. Dr. Link earned his B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Central Michigan University. He then received his Ph.D. from Michigan Technological University. He began his career with NOAA NMFS at the Pascagoula Lab before moving to the Woods Hole Lab.

Dr. Richard McBride earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Eckerd College, his Master’s in Oceanography from Stonybrook University, and his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University. He worked at the Florida Marine Research Institute beginning in 1994. In 2006, he joined the Northeast Fisheries Science Center at Woods Hole where, as of this interview in 2016, he currently works as the Chief of the Population Biology Branch.