GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute

08/25/2026

AWRI is hiring a new Business Manager to be responsible for financial operations and provide strategic input as a member of the AWRI administrative team. Learn more about the role and apply by September 14, 2026 at https://gvsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/careers/job/Muskegon-MI/Business-Manager---AWRI_R104925.

08/19/2026

Congratulations to the graduate student Mitchell Olszewski, who successfully defended his thesis, titled “Evaluating E. coli Contamination of the Outer Mucus Layer on Freshwater Fish.” A summary of Mitchell's thesis is featured as a spotlight at gvsu.edu/wri.

08/06/2026

Congratulations to our undergraduate interns who shared the results of their research with other students, faculty, and staff at AWRI's annual summer research symposium! Great job, everyone!

08/06/2026

Casting fyke nets on Muskegon Lake, the is helping to assess the fish community for the Muskegon Lake long-term monitoring project. The nets are set three times a year at four locations around the lake, with a crew returning after 24 hours to collect, measure, and then release the caught fish and turtles back into the water.

This data provides insights into the fish community, habitat, and water quality of Muskegon Lake. It also benefits anglers, community members, and educators.

🐟Want to learn more? Visit the Muskegon Lake Long-Term Monitoring Project website: gvsu.edu/wri/muskegonlake

08/05/2026

Step into the environmental chemistry wet lab and you’ll likely find Brian Scull prepping samples for analysis. For the past 23 years, he has led and supported research happening at AWRI. This lab can process and analyze chemical and microbial samples, including phosphorus, nitrogen, calcium, and E. coli. From analyzing samples to invoicing, Brian does it all!

In the wet lab, Brian assists ongoing research within different AWRI labs, along with outside organizations like conservation districts and lake associations. Brains says his favorite part of his work is helping with student research projects, stressing that continuing to fund sample analysis for natural resource research is critical.

Interested in sampling water or soil for yourself or your organization and curious about sample costs? Check out the prices, analysis time, and more: gvsu.edu/wri/wetlab

08/04/2026

Where do data scientists go camping? A random forest! 🌲

A “random forest” is a data science method that uses lots of data points to find patterns, making it the perfect camping spot for a data lover!

The data scientist, Bennett McAfee, has an interdisciplinary role at that combines computer science, mathematics, and specific knowledge - like environmental science for us! Data scientists aid in research by creating ecological models of past, current, and future environmental factors, with their changes and interactions. This type of work is essential not just for researchers, but for communities. Predicting what is or can happen will let researchers better understand ecosystems while preparing communities for potential change.

Bennett explains his work focuses on “extracting as much information as possible from real time data.” Much of the work goes into obtaining raw data, cleaning it, examining relationships among different data points, creating equations for those relationships in code, and using those equations to build models.

One of Bennett’s current projects is the Global Lakes Metabolism Respiratory (GLAMR). GLAMR is a centralized, public repository of estimates of ecosystem metabolism and related data for lentic water bodies worldwide. Bennett has been working on this project for about a year, helping to build a massive, reliable, open-source data collection. Another modeling project he has done looks at zooplankton movement in the water column over a day. Bennett is also helping the with angler surveying and our outreach team create a faster way to enter surveys from the organizations we host.

Have questions about these projects? Drop them below so we can ask the expert!

07/31/2026

With the dog days of summer here, we here at would like to show you some cool photos captured this summer.

Can you identify any animals pictured? Comment below! 📸👇

07/30/2026

On , we're grateful to the Grand Valley State University undergrads who chose to spend their summer at AWRI, learning to become the next generation of aquatic scientists and resource managers! Thank you all for your hard work!

07/30/2026

AWRI science instructors will be hosting a booth at this weekend's Bright Light Festival on Sunday, August 2! Come learn about your local waterbodies and say hi!

DATE CHANGE! Due to chancy weather on August 1st (Saturday) we are switching date to August 2nd (Sunday). Please come join the FREE fun on Muskegon’s lakeshore!