Dr. Steven Michael Vamosi

The research conducted in my lab primarily focuses on conservation and evolutionary ecology of threatened aquatic and semi-aquatic species in NW Canada (especially AB and YT). More specifically, lab members are studying water quality, aquatic community diversity and health, and contaminant levels along elevational gradients in western Canadian mountains.

Lab ethos and values

Our research is better when we include people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and ways of thinking and interacting with the natural world. Accordingly, we seek to recruit, support, and mentor members from diverse backgrounds, with an active focus on folks from historically marginalized groups. The sciences have not always been a welcoming space for everyone, and we actively work to create an inclusive environment. We affirm that LGBTIQ+ rights are human rights. We also acknowledge that fostering inclusion is an ongoing and evolving process, not a one and done item to be crossed off a checklist.

Field-based ecology brings its own particular challenges on top of these. Much of our work happens outdoors, in remote places, in small parties, and often for long stretches, and the traditions of the field have not always accounted for the realities these conditions impose on everyone. We refuse to treat those challenges as someone else's problem. Among our concrete actions, we:

• never send anyone into the field alone;
• modify or design overnight itineraries when a trainee's caregiving responsibilities, religion, or other circumstances make them difficult;
• tailor field roles so that heavy or physically demanding tasks are shared, not assumed to fall to particular people, and adapt duties where health, caregiving, disability, or other circumstances require it;
• budget fieldwork realistically so that cost, gear, or travel never silently exclude a student, and make expectations about time away from home explicit from the start;
• deliberately make space and time in lab meetings for quiet voices;

with the aim of fostering an environment in which people can speak openly about mental health and workload, and treating accommodations as normal rather than exceptional.

These practices reflect a belief that a lab that encourages diversity and attends to the human conditions of its work produces better, more honest science.

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Health and Life

Courses

Course number	Course title	Semester
BIOL 315	Quantitative Biology I	Fall 2026
BIOL 451	Conservation Biology	Winter 2027

Awards

New Faculty Award, Alberta Ingenuity. 2004

Publications

Google Scholar