Mark Luttenton is a professor of biology, program director for the Master’s in Water Resource Policy, and former Associate Dean of the Graduate School. At GVSU he has mentored over 90 students on research projects and he has received the GVSU Outstanding Educator award and has been nominated for state and National teaching awards.
Luttenton started working on rivers as an undergraduate at Central Michigan in the mid-1970s, and has studied river ecosystems ranging from the Mississippi River to rivers in Oklahoma, Idaho, Belize and Costa Rica. His previous research includes stream metabolism, stream food webs, salmonid population genetics, European source populations of Michigan brown trout, juvenile steelhead survival, trout movement and habitat use in the Au Sable River, trout bioenergetics, and ecology of freshwater ponds in the Bahamas. His recent research has included studies of the parasite causing swimmer’s itch, impacts of New Zealand mud snails, factors that influence whirling disease in salmonids, and aquatic fungi as a source of compounds to treat pediatric cancers.
Mark’s research has supported the work of several conservation groups including the Henry’s Fork Foundation and several Michigan organizations dealing with oil and gas development and large groundwater withdrawals. He has been recognized for his work by several conservation organizations.
When not “in the water” he likes spending time in the woods with his two German shorthair pointers.
