Dave Strayer is a Research Affiliate at the Water Center. During a 33-year research career at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, he studied biological invasions, freshwater conservation, shoreline management, and other topics in freshwater ecology. Since retiring from the Cary Institute, Dave has been writing about ecology for general audiences (for example, his recent book "Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands"; essays such as "A Year in the Kingdom of Ice.") and writing syntheses covering key topics in freshwater ecology and conservation (for example, Dudgeon, D. and Strayer, D.L., 2025. Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: what are the prospects? Biological Reviews 100: 205-226). He is a member of the Michigan Mussel Workgroup, an informal group of biologists from government agencies, colleges and universities, and environmental NGOs, which helps to coordinate research, management, and outreach about the state’s freshwater mussels.
Dave has a B.S. in Zoology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell.