Derek Chamberlin
Derek Chamberlin
Derek is a Supervisory Research Fisheries Biologist in the Age and Growth Program at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). Derek serves roles both as a researcher and supervising the production ageing team at AFSC. This involves collaboration with program staff to coordinate the processing 30,000 biological samples annually and the development Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) as an age estimation tool. Derek received his PhD. in fisheries and aquatic sciences from the University of Florida in 2023 where he conducted research on developing novel age validation techniques, expanding the application of established techniques, and modeling the effects of ageing error on stock assessment estimates. Following his graduate work, Derek was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florida where he continued to study the development of novel age validation techniques and expanded his research focus to include epigenetic age estimation of long-lived fishes. Derek’s current research at AFSC focuses on quantifying ageing error and its propagation in model predicted ages, further development of FT-NIR as an age estimation tool, and the use of eye lens core radiocarbon to validate age estimation of Alaska fishes.