Dr. Richard Methot grew up in western Massachusetts. He attended the University of Washington and received a bachelor'sdegree from the College of Fisheries. Following graduation, Dr. Methot went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he earned his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography in 1981. After a one year postdoc at Bodega Marine Laboratory, he began working for NOAA that same year at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in LaJolla, CA. In 1988, he moved to the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA.

Robert Kope was born in Reedley, California in 1953. He received his PhD in Population Ecology from the University of California Davis and began working for NOAA Fisheries at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in1989.His work has focused on stock assessments, harvest management, and conservation biology of salmon in northern California. In 1994, Robert moved to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center to participate in the coast-wide status review of all Pacific salmon species under the Endangered Species Act.

Robin Waples was born in Berkeley, California. He received a Bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University and his Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 1986, Waples joined the Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a National Research Council Research Associate. From 1997 to 2000 he was the Director of the Conservation Biology Division. In 2001, he became the center's Senior Scientist. His research interests include population genetics of anadromous and marine fishes.

Dr. Rohinee Paranjpye was born in Pune, India in 1955 and has been working at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a microbiologist since 1979. As part of a microbiology product quality and safety team, she helped improve the safety and marketability of fishery products by identifying hazards in seafood. She also researches the role of abiotic and biotic environmental factors on the presence of marine pathogens in order to develop improved risk assessment tools for early warning systems. Rohinee has a B.S. in Chemistry from India, a B.S.

Tiffani Marsh was born in Warren, Ohio in 1956. She received her B.A. in Zoology from Miami University. She began her career at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 1990 studying salmon migration patterns. She is now a Supervisory Research Fishery Biologist in the Fish Ecology Division.

Dr. Walton "Walt"Dickhoff was born in Wisconsin in 1947. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of California Berkeley in 1976 and joined the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in 1986 working in the Coastal Zone and Estuarine Studies Division. Dr. Dickhoff is the Division Director of the Environmental and Fisheries Science division, and his research focuses on salmon growth and development.