Tim D. Smith

In 1969, I earned a B.A. at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma Washington and in 1973 a Ph.D. in Biomathematics at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Although I worked primarily for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries). I have taught fisheries science and statistics to college, graduate, and post-doctoral students at the University of Hawaii, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of New Hampshire. I have been involved with fisheries research and management, as well as national and international marine resource committees and commissions.

I have published more than 100 research papers and book chapters related to fisheries science, ecological theory and practice, and historical ecology. I authored a historical study of fisheries science methods

(Smith, T.D. 1994. Scaling Fisheries: The science of measuring the effects of fishing, 1855-1955), and a book on science and faith. (Smith, T.D. 2018. The Boiler Room Boys: An underground Story of Science, Religion, and the Faith the Fuels Both). In addition, I have published papers in leading journals including Nature, Fish and Fisheries, Ecological Applications, Canadian Journal of Fisheries, Marine Mammal Science, PLoS One, Marine Ecological Progress Series, and Journal of Zoology and edited two other books.

Since retiring in 2005, I have continued research on the ecological history of marine resources, especially whales. I have completed several technical papers and book chapters and presented keynote speeches at several international conferences on ecological history. Additionally, I have chaired a team of experts on marine mammals as part of the United Nations’ World Ocean Assessment (www.worldoceanassessment.org). In collaboration with 2 whaling history museums, I am currently finalizing a multi-partner website that links the museums’ collections with historical whaling data that my team collected over the last 15 years (www.worldwhaling.org).