Introductions

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

👋 Hi everyone 👋. This discussion is a space for those working on, using, 👀 at, or just talking about the Fisheries Integrated Modeling System (FIMS) to introduce themselves. We are happy you are here and look forward to interacting with you. Please feel free to just say hi 👋 or give a bit of background on where you work and what you work on. Please encourage others in your local circles to also introduce themselves.

If you are new to FIMS, please checkout out our NOAA-FIMS website to learn more about the project. Also, please feel free to reply to individuals as they introduce themselves if you work on similar things or want to share relevant information with them.

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

Hi my name is Kelli Johnson and I work for the Office of Science and Technology within NOAA Fisheries and I am the Project Lead of FIMS. I am excited to be here leading this effort given the immense amount of talent within the group.

[cmlegault]

Hi my name is Chris Legault and I work for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, part of NOAA Fisheries. I work in the Population Dynamics Branch conducting stock assessments.

[e-perl-NOAA]

👋🏻 I am Elizabeth Perl, and I am at the Office of Science and Technology within the National Stock Assessment Program. I currently work on maintenance/development of SS3 repositories, including the website and documentation, as well as assisting with the maintenance and development of SS3-related tools such as r4ss and the SAC tool.

[Andrea-Havron-NOAA]

Hi my name is Andrea Havron and I work for the Office of Science and Technology within NOAA Fishereis. I am the lead statistical developer of FIMS and work on C++ development in the project. I enjoy the collaborative nature of the FIMS project and welcome otuside contributions so please reach out if you have any questions or feedback!

[ericward-noaa]

Hi, my name is Eric Ward and I work for the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. I work on lots of statistical problems -- ones most relevant to stock assessment are related to spatial modeling and index standardization. I'm excited to contribute to FIMS

[msupernaw]

Hi my name is Matthew Supernaw and I work for the Office of Science and Technology with the National Stock Assessment Program and I am directing the development of C++ code in the FIMS project.

[alexjensen-NOAA]

Hi everyone, my name is Alex Jensen and I work for the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla. I primarily conduct stock assessments for coastal pelagic species off the U.S. West Coast but am involved in various related modeling and research efforts, including FIMS!

[chantelwetzel-noaa]

Hi, my name is Chantel Wetzel and I work at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. I am a stock assessment scientist and have worked on a range of assessment types for various West Coast groundfish species. Currently, we primarily conduct our assessments in Stock Synthesis and I am looking forward to testing out and transitioning to FIMS as development progresses.

[Bai-Li-NOAA]

Hi everyone, my name is Bai Li, and I am a contractor working within the Office of Science and Technology at NOAA Fisheries. My current focus is on developing the R interface and testing frameworks for FIMS. I'm passionate about applying software development principles to research to build robust and maintainable research software.

[ChristineStawitz-NOAA]

Hi! I'm Christine Stawitz, I work as the Assessment Branch Director at NOAA Fisheries at the Office of Science and Technology. I live in Seattle, and I am excited to support the transition to FIMS!

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

We were all 😭 when @cstawitz left to work in the UK as a Research Software Engineer. She currently works for the University of Birmingham and is still slightly involved in FIMS, where she is leading a paper on the development process of FIMS.

[peterkuriyama-NOAA]

I'm Peter Kuriyama, and I'm at the SWFSC in La Jolla. I work on stock assessment of coastal pelagic and highly migratory species.

[rklasky]

Hello. My name is Ron Klasky and I'm a contractor with the Office of Science and Technology. My background is in graphics applications. I'm currently working on Ecosystem Models both in Python and C++. I work remotely from Florida.

[timjmiller]

Hi my name is Tim Miller and I work for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in the Population Dynamics Branch. I am the lead developer for the Woods Hole Assessment Model (WHAM) which provides a range of options for state-space age-structured models.

[jbigman-NOAA]

Hi, my name is Jenny Bigman, I work for the Office of Science and Technology, and am based in Seattle WA. I work on understanding how species are broadly responding to environmental change across regions with the goal of incorporating this information in stock assessment models including FIMS.

[kellijohnson-NOAA]

Although Jenny (@jennybigman) is no longer with NOAA she is still working on NOAA-FIMS related items such as {fishprior}, where she is active in the development of the R code and currently writing a paper about how to use the package.

[jimianelli]

Jim Ianelli here, I'm a stock assessment scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (since 1992!). I am presently competing in the Legault-Ianelli beard contest (Chris doesn't know this yet). My main focus is on groundfish in Alaska and have worked with ADMB extensively. I stay involved in tuna assessments (primarily through the work done on southern bluefin tuna) and was chair of the Scientific Committee for the South Pacific Fisheries Management Organization (sprfmo.int) for over 10 years. I'm mainly 👀 at FIMS but do wish to support in any way I am able.

[LeoMDurante]

Hi everyone, my name is Leo Durante. I work with stock assessments of data limited coastal reef fishes at the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), mostly with Stock Synthesis.

[oaalade77]

Hi, my name is Larry Alade. I’m with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, working in the Population Dynamics Branch on stock assessments.

[JoelRice-NOAA]

Hi everyone, my name is Joel Rice and I work on stock assessments, tool development. I work in the NMFS Office of Science and Technology, and I am looking forward to developing my first FIMS model this year.

[JDeroba]

Hi, my name is Jon Deroba. I am at the Northeast Center in Woods Hole. I work on stock assessment and MSE.

[nickcfisch]

Hi everyone, my name is Nick Fisch, stock assessment scientist at DFO working on Pacific Groundfish. I am currently an SS3 user for operational assessments, and am very excited/curious about the transition to FIMS.

[danagrieco]

Hi everyone! My name is Dana Grieco, I'm with the Social Science Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and am interested in social-ecological connections in fisheries systems and new ways to connect social sciences to stock assessment processes :)

[manuelcoffill]

Hi everyone! My name is Manuel Coffill-Rivera, and I'm a 4th-year PhD student at the University of South Alabama. I have introductory experience conducting integrated stock assessments using SS3. I'm greatly interested in the development and operationalization of FIMS, as I hope to continue developing assessments using next-gen approaches, such as random effects.

[efletcherPIFSC]

Hi everyone, my name is Eric Fletcher. I am working with the Fisheries and Research Branch in Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) developing stock assessment tools. I worked with @JonBrodziak on a Windows GUI frontend for AGERPO (Age Structured Projection Model), but I am developing a R package successor ageproR. I contributed to ss3diags and r4ss itself.

I am interested how FIMS will develop with Age Structured Projection Models.

[BurtonShank]

Good Morning. This is Burton Shank, a stock assessment scientist at the NEFSC in Woods Hole. My work focuses on assessment and management of American lobster and Jonah crab. I'm currently developing a length-based assessment model in RTMB that is based on the ADMB model from Yong Chen's lab at the University of Maine and used for the lobster assessment since 2009.

Following the Dowling et al. standard for assessment scientist speed dating:

• I use version control
• I don't actively promote my model (yet)
• I do not have a succession plan but am training others
• I hope my model is trending away from being obsolete
• This is currently a bespoke model but will hopefully become more general with development

[aman-raj-srivastva]

Hi everyone, my name is Aman Raj, a GSoC 2026 contributor and will start working on FIMS. I have a background in AI/ML and data analysis, and I’ve also recently been contributing to FIMS (including work on improving convergence handling). I’m excited to learn more about the system and contribute to the project this summer!

[erikhwilliams]

Hello everyone, my name is Erik Williams. I am the chief of the Atlantic Fisheries branch in the Southeast Fisheries Science Center conducting stock assessments for federal fisheries in the US South Atlantic region. I have been doing stock assessments for 26 years and co-creator of the Beaufort Assessment Model (BAM). I am ready to move on from ADMB and look forward to integrating FIMS into my branch's workflow.

[mollystevens-noaa]

Hi everybody, I’m Molly! I’m a stock assessment scientist at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center. My research background is in population dynamics and bioeconomic modeling. I’ll be working with the FIMS team this summer through the Google Summer of Code to integrate an empirical dynamic modelling (EDM) module, building off my recent population assessment work on Gulf shrimp. I love collaborating to gain efficiency and bolster community, so I’m excited to dive in with the FIMS team!! AND excited to explore EDM applications within FIMS!

[jeffreyvieser-NOAA]

Hi all, I'm Jeff Vieser and I work in the National Stock Assessment program in the Office of Science and Technology at Headquarters. Much of my work focuses on tracking stock assessment results and improvements, and I'm excited for the operational efficiencies and improvements that FIMS will bring to the NOAA Fisheries assessments!

[AndreaChan-NOAA]

Hi FIMS fans, I'm Andie Chan and I'm an interdisciplinary scientist contractor in the National Stock Assessment Program in the Office of Science and Technology. I'm working on a paper identifying pathways for human dimensions data and expertise to inform stock assessment and fisheries management decisions based on a comparison of NOAA and ICES case studies. I am also a member of the National Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profile Coordination Team, and the National Ecosystem Assessment Program Human Dimensions Working Group. I'm excited that FIMS is being built with direct social scientist involvement, and look forward to seeing progress and contributing if I can!

[vivek0913]

Hi, I am Vivek. I am a C++ software engineer at XCOM LABS. I'll be happy to contribute to c++ issues. :)