Stephen D McCormick
Steve McCormick is a Scientist Emeritus at the Conte Anadromous Fish Research Laboratory in Turners Falls, MA.
Steve’s work has centered on the environmental and hormonal control of water and salt balance, development, growth and reproduction of anadromous fishes, including salmon, trout, shad, alewife, sturgeon and lamprey. This research has addressed important environmental issues including acidification, impacts of dams, endocrine disruptors and climate change, especially the impacts of temperature and salinity. The results of this work have been published in more than 190 papers and book chapters. Steve has been Chair of the Division of Comparative Endocrinology and member of the Executive Board of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, and President and Current Member of the Executive Committee of the Physiology Section of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). He has been a visiting scientist at the University of Goteborg (1988) and Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo (1990), James Chair Visiting Professor at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada (1999) and Visiting Scholar at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan (2002). In 2014 he received the Excellence in Fish Physiology Award for lifetime achievement from the Physiology Section of AFS. He has been an adjunct Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst since 1990 and Associate Editor of General and Comparative Endocrinology since 1996.
Professional Experience
1990-present Research Physiologist & Physiology Section Leader, Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, USGS, Turners Falls, MA.
2016-present Senior Scientist, USGS
1998-1999 Acting Director, Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, USGS, Biological Resources Division, Turners Falls, MA.
1989-1990 Research Fellow, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo (with Professor Tetsuya Hirano, 4 months).
1986-1989 Postdoctoral Fellow (NIH) with Professor Howard A. Bern in the Department of Zoology, Univ. of California, Berkeley.
1983-1986 Postdoctoral Fellow, with Dr. Richard L. Saunders, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, St. Andrews Biological Station, New Brunswick, Canada.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., 1983, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanography Joint Program in Oceanography, Cambridge and Woods Hole, MA USA
Affiliations and Memberships*
1990-present, Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
1992-present, Adjunct Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
1993 Member, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Science and Products
Assessing heat stress in migrating Yukon River Chinook Salmon
Understanding Brook Trout Persistence in Warming Streams
Effects of temperature and energy use on fish passage and spawning success of American shad
Sockeye Salmon Migrating at the Northern Edge of Their Distribution
Fish Physiology
Data for examining thermal equilibration rates of brook trout implanted with temperature recording tags and subjected to rapid and slow temperature changes
Gene Transcription and Heat Shock Protein 70 Abundance Results from Migrating Adult Chinook Salmon, Yukon Watershed, 2016-2017
Physiological changes in response to salinity and cortisol treatment in Atlantic sturgeon
Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) Body Condition and Water Temperature Along the Pilgrim River, Northwestern Alaska, 2013-2016
Thermal transfer rate is slower in bigger fish: How does body size affect response time of small, implantable temperature recording tags?
Differential heat shock protein responses in two species of Pacific salmon and their utility in identifying heat stress
Osmoregulation and acid-base balance.
Discovery of prolactin-like in lamprey: Role in osmoregulation and new insight into the evolution of the growth hormone/prolactin family
Evaluating acid-aluminum stress in streams of the Northeastern U.S. at watershed, fish community and physiological scales
Juvenile sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) have a wide window of elevated salinity tolerance that is eventually limited during springtime warming
Metabolic costs associated with seawater acclimation in a euryhaline teleost, the fourspine stickleback (Apeltes quadracus)
Na+/HCO3- cotransporter 1 (nbce1) isoform gene expression during smoltification and seawater acclimation of Atlantic salmon
Repeated genetic targets of natural selection underlying adaptation of euryhaline fishes to changing salinity
Neuroendocrine regulation of plasma cortisol levels during smoltification and seawater acclimation of Atlantic salmon
Identification of supraoptimal temperatures in juvenile blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) using survival, growth rate and scaled energy reserves
Tissue and salinity specific Na+/Cl− cotransporter (NCC) orthologues involved in the adaptive osmoregulation of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Assessing heat stress in migrating Yukon River Chinook Salmon
Understanding Brook Trout Persistence in Warming Streams
Effects of temperature and energy use on fish passage and spawning success of American shad
Sockeye Salmon Migrating at the Northern Edge of Their Distribution
Fish Physiology
Data for examining thermal equilibration rates of brook trout implanted with temperature recording tags and subjected to rapid and slow temperature changes
Gene Transcription and Heat Shock Protein 70 Abundance Results from Migrating Adult Chinook Salmon, Yukon Watershed, 2016-2017
Physiological changes in response to salinity and cortisol treatment in Atlantic sturgeon
Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) Body Condition and Water Temperature Along the Pilgrim River, Northwestern Alaska, 2013-2016
Thermal transfer rate is slower in bigger fish: How does body size affect response time of small, implantable temperature recording tags?
Differential heat shock protein responses in two species of Pacific salmon and their utility in identifying heat stress
Osmoregulation and acid-base balance.
Discovery of prolactin-like in lamprey: Role in osmoregulation and new insight into the evolution of the growth hormone/prolactin family
Evaluating acid-aluminum stress in streams of the Northeastern U.S. at watershed, fish community and physiological scales
Juvenile sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) have a wide window of elevated salinity tolerance that is eventually limited during springtime warming
Metabolic costs associated with seawater acclimation in a euryhaline teleost, the fourspine stickleback (Apeltes quadracus)
Na+/HCO3- cotransporter 1 (nbce1) isoform gene expression during smoltification and seawater acclimation of Atlantic salmon
Repeated genetic targets of natural selection underlying adaptation of euryhaline fishes to changing salinity
Neuroendocrine regulation of plasma cortisol levels during smoltification and seawater acclimation of Atlantic salmon
Identification of supraoptimal temperatures in juvenile blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) using survival, growth rate and scaled energy reserves
Tissue and salinity specific Na+/Cl− cotransporter (NCC) orthologues involved in the adaptive osmoregulation of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government