Dr. Matt Cooper

Dr. Matthew Cooper is an aquatic ecologist whose research focuses on various freshwater ecosystems, but especially the Great Lakes coastal and tributary habitats. With over 40 papers published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, he is considered an expert on Great Lakes coastal science. Examples of questions addressed by Dr. Cooper’s team include: What impact does nutrient pollution have on wetland function? How do fish and macroinvertebrate communities respond to human disturbances? And how are Great Lakes coastal wetlands responding to climate change? Dr. Cooper’s team addresses these and related research questions using a combination of field studies, experiments, and modelling approaches.

 

Since 2011, Dr. Cooper has helped to lead the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program, a long-term U.S. EPA-funded collaboration among 11 universities and several state and federal agencies that assesses the health of over 1,000 wetlands across the Great Lakes. The monitoring program has helped to shape restoration strategies for coastal wetlands in both the U.S. and Canada and has dramatically improved our understanding of coastal wetland structure and function throughout the Great Lakes basin.

 

Matt received his bachelor's and master’s degrees from Grand Valley State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. From 2015 to 2020, Matt held various positions at Northland College, including Assistant Professor of Biology and Natural Resources, and both Research Scientist and Associate Director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Grand Valley State University where he leads a research team of graduate and undergraduate students and teaches classes in Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Science. Matt continues to collaborate with Burke Center scientists on projects throughout northern Wisconsin and the Lake Superior coast.