Dr. Kathy Van Alstyne

Dr. Kathy Van Alstyne is a Marine Scientist at Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes, WA. She received her B.S. in Zoology from the University of Rhode Island in 1983 and her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington in 1988. She has held Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Guam Marine Laboratory. From 1991 to 1995, she was an Assistant Professor of Biology at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. In 1995, she returned to the West Coast as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Zoology at Oregon State University. She moved to the Shannon Point Marine Center in 1997. Dr. Van Alstyne holds adjunct positions in the Huxley College of Environmental Studies and the Department of Biology. She can accept M.Sc. students through Western Washington University's Marine and Estuarine Science Program.

Dr. Van Alstyne's research interests are in the physiological and chemical ecology of marine organisms. She has conducted extensive studies on the role of chemical and structural defenses on interactions between marine organisms on the coasts of Washington and Oregon and on reefs in Micronesia, Australia, and New Zealand. Much of her research has focused on how environmental factors influence the strategies used by organisms to defend themselves. Her most recent projects are related to the formation and effects of harmful seaweed blooms in the Puget Sound/Northwest Straits region of Washington State. Dr. Van Alstyne has published over forty papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has given numerous talks at universities and scientific meetings.

Dr. Van Alstyne has been actively involved in undergraduate education and public outreach. She has taught 20 different courses ranging from Introductory Biology to graduate level seminars. She actively encourages students to become involved in research and regularly supervises undergraduate research projects. Many of these students have been co-authors with her on published scientific papers. She served as the first Project Director and as a Steering Committee member of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, a program to train academic environmental scientists to communicate more effectively about environmental issues and has worked with local and state agencies on issues related to water quality and harmful seaweed blooms.