Michigan State University
Fisheries & Wildlife Department
Graduate Student Organization
The GSO Symposium is a student-organized event with the goals of increasing communication within our department and amongst our partners, showcasing the range of research topics we are investigating, and providing graduate students with an opportunity to present their research in a professional atmosphere.
The 2024 Symposium was held in the MSU Union on Feb. 16th, 2024.






















Symposium Awardees
Best Prospective Talk: Logan Hysen
Best Retrospective Talk: Sean Lennox
The 2024 Symposium was filled with:
- 22 graduate and undergraduate student presentations
- a wonderful plenary from Dr. Neil Carter
- over 90 in-person attendees
- over 20 online attendees
- great conversation, company, and food
Thank you again to the incredible committee members, moderators, donors, venue and audiovisual staff, and presenters for making this year’s symposium successful!
Keynote Speaker:
​
Dr. Neil Carter
Associate professor Conservation and Coexistence Group
University of Michigan SEAS
​
​
​
"Toward an integrated science of human-wildlife coexistence"
Dr. Carter is an associate professor at University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. He earned a PhD at Michigan State University, an MS at University of Michigan, and a BS at University of California San Diego. Carter's interdisciplinary research examines the complex dynamics that characterize interactions between wildlife and people (e.g., provision of ecosystem services, conflicts) in a global change context. His work addresses local to global wildlife conservation issues, utilizes a multitude of spatial techniques and tools, engages different stakeholders, and informs policymaking. His general research interests include: spatial ecology, landscape ecology, wildlife management and policy, wildlife ecology and conservation, human dimensions of wildlife management and policy, wildlife ecology and conservation, human dimensions of wildlife management, complexity of coupled human and natural systems, and sustainability science. Projects use field monitoring, social surveys, remote sensing, GIS, and spatial and simulation modeling to investigate human-wildlife coexistence in a number of contexts, such as the American West, Nepal, and Mozambique. Prior to SEAS, Dr. Carter was an Assistant Professor in the Human-Environment Systems research group at Boise State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and Princeton University.
_crop.jpg)