Ecology and the science of small-scale fisheries: A synthetic review of research effort for the Anthropocene

I joined Duke in 2017 to pursue both a Ph.D. in Marine Science and Conservation through the Nicholas School and a J.D. at Duke Law School. Most broadly, I am interested in the intersection between ecological science and law. In my work with Pat Halpin in the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, I am interested in the intersection between marine spatial planning, ecosystem based management, areas beyond national jurisdiction, and both domestic and international environmental law. 

Before coming to Duke, I was the Environmental Health High Meadows Fellow at Environmental Defense Fund in DC. I graduated from Princeton University in 2015 with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 

I am interested in the fundamental question of how groups (human and non-human) can find ways to self-organize, cooperate, and engage in successful collective action for the benefit of the common good. To do this I strive to understand how the institutions (formal and informal rules and norms) that govern social behavior, interplay with biophysical variables to shape social-ecological systems. What kind of institutions are better able to govern complex-adaptive systems? and how can societies (large and small) develop robust institutions that provide enough flexibility for collective learning and adaptation over the long-term?

My academic and professional training is based on a deep conviction that it is through integrating different disciplinary perspectives and methods that we will be able to find solutions to challenging dilemmas in natural resources management, conservation, and environmental policy. Trained as a marine biologist, I completed a M.S in natural resources studying small-scale fisheries in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Realizing the need to bring social science theories into my work on common-pool resources sustainability, I earned an MPA and a Ph.D. in Management (with a minor in cultural anthropology) from the University of Arizona and under the supervision of Edella Schlager. Following I spent two years working with Elinor Ostrom, 2009 co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, at the Workshop for Political Theory and Policy Analysis of Indiana University. Methodologically, I am familiar with a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches and formally trained to conduct Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA or more recently fsQCA), that allows among other things, systematic comparisons of middle range N sample sizes and address issues of multiple-causality.

Brian Silliman is the Rachel Carson Distinguished Professor of Marine Conservation Biology. He holds both B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Virginia, and completed his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. In recognition of his research achievements, Silliman was named a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2023, Distinguished Fulbright Chair with CSIRO in 2019; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 2015; a Visiting Professor with the Royal Netherlands Society of Arts and Sciences in 2011; and David H. Smith Conservation Fellow with The Nature Conservancy in 2004.  He has also received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists (2006), a Young Investigator Grant Award from the Andrew Mellon Foundation (2007), and a NSF Career Grant Award (2011). Dr. Silliman has published 25 book chapters and over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, and co-edited five books: Marine Community Ecology and Conservation, Marine Ecosystem Restoration: Challenges and New Horizons, Human Impacts on Salt Marshes: A Global Perspective, Effective Conservation: Data not Dogma, and Marine Disease Ecology. His teaching and research are focused on community ecology, food webs, conservation and restoration, global change, and evolution and ecological consequences of cooperative behavior.