New director waited years for lake job to open

While interviewing for his new job as the director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station, freshwater ecologist Jim Elser was asked by one of the staff members why he wanted the job.

His response: “Look at that lake! I’m a limnologist! Look at that lake!”

Recently Elser addressed a packed room at the University of Montana’s 116-year-old biological station, where he was formally announced as the replacement for Jack Stanford, the world-renowned research scientist who has led the station for the past 35 years.

In the field of limnology, or the study of inland waters, the station is a world-class research facility, armed with some of the top scientists in the field churning out cutting-edge research year-round.

Elser turned down other jobs for years waiting for the director position to open. He said he has big plans to broaden the curriculum at the station and bring in more international and multidisciplinary students.

“The Flathead Lake Biological Station already has an outstanding staff in place who are talented and dedicated to the mission of the station and the university,” Elser said. “The types of courses ... they’ve been really traditional lake ecology, forest ecology, which is great, but I think environmental engineering would be great out here, and then environmental journalism and documentary making, and training scientists to communicate better as well.”

Dec. 1 is Elser’s official start date, following a transition into his new role. He is currently a Regents professor at Arizona State University as well as the president of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the world’s largest water science organization.

Elser also has earned an array of scientific awards, including two Fulbright Scholarships. His academic background includes studies of freshwater ecology around the world, 220 bylines in scientific journals and millions of dollars in grant funding that include multimillion-dollar awards from the National Science Foundation and NASA.

Elser said he is planning to add two new staff members by fall 2016. He will also work with his wife, Monica, to expand learning opportunities at the station for regional schools by hosting classes geared toward public school teachers.

“Teachers already bring school groups here and it’s a great thing for kids but it’s very hard to scale up,” he said. “If you work with the teachers, then you give them the skills, knowledge and approaches that they need, and then it has a big multiplier effect for classes over the years.”

At the end of his speech, Elser asked the audience to learn to think deeply about the forces guiding Flathead Lake.

“When you look at it, I want you to see below the surface, and beyond the reflections on the surface, and in your mind’s eye, think about things like the physical currents and the turbulence moving around under that water,” he said. “Think not only about that lake, but think about the catchment, because every lake is a mirror of its catchment ... all of those things that will affect the health of this ecosystem that we all care about.”

Other speakers at the open house presentation welcomed the addition of Elser to the station’s team, but made it clear that he would have some big shoes to fill.

Stanford, who won’t officially leave his post until next summer, has worked at the station since 1981, helping to transform it into what his colleague James Ward termed a “state-of-the-art analytical facility.”

“In an amazingly short time, he raised the station to international prominence,” Ward said. “He and his colleagues have received international recognition for their work in the Flathead ecosystem, and around the world.”

Stanford has garnered a host of awards and honors throughout his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of River Science, the Awards of Excellence from the Society of Freshwater Scientists and the North American Benthological Society and Conservationist of the Year from the Montana Environmental Information Center, which he won along with Bonnie Ellis, another veteran limnologist at the station.

Stanford holds a doctorate in limnology from the University of Utah, a background that has launched him into groundbreaking studies of mysis shrimp’s impacts on the Flathead Lake ecosystem, river restoration and subalpine meadow ecology, plus the discovery of multiple species of underground aquatic organisms in the Flathead River basin.

During a brief speech at the event, he was quick to point to the work of the station as a whole.

“What we’ve done here, over many years, rests squarely on the shoulders of the many people who have worked here at this station,” Stanford said. “It’s not so much about me; it’s about all the fine people that work with me. We have worked together — most of us — for many years, and that’s something I cherish more than anything.”

University president Royce Engstrom also offered praise not just for Stanford, but also for the scientifically acclaimed facility he helped build.

“To have this tradition of a hundred years of service at Flathead Lake Biological Station is really something that no other university has,” Engstrom said. “To have research scientists who have the caliber of the folks that are here, and also bringing to the public the message of the importance of this lake ... I’m so proud of the folks that do that.”

Stanford said afterwards that after he retires, he’s planning to move with his wife to their house in Washington state, and was looking forward to some serious fishing up in British Columbia.

Regarding the incoming director, Stanford said he expected Elser would provide the station with a much-needed “burst of new energy” while expanding what has become one of the world’s richest datasets on a single body of water.

“He has such energy and skill that I’d say the sky’s the limit,” Stanford said. “I know he’ll continue to take really good care of the data and information on the Flathead Lake ecosystem. That’s been a steady, fundamental underpinning of what we’ve always done here.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.