Carl Boettiger

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About

Carl Boettiger is a leading voice in ecological forecasting and computational sustainability, with a focus on managing natural resources under deep uncertainty. His work bridges theoretical ecology, decision theory, and open-source software development to address pressing environmental challenges. Boettiger’s highly cited paper, “Rebuilding global fisheries under uncertainty” (2019, 51 citations), critically examines the prospects for sustainable fisheries in the face of uncertain stock assessments, variable management outcomes, and climate-driven change. He demonstrates that traditional models often underestimate the complexity of real-world decision-making, advocating for robust, adaptive strategies. In his more recent work, “Pretty Darn Good Control: When are Approximate Solutions Better than Approximate Models” (2023), he challenges conventional optimization approaches, showing that simpler, approximate control policies can outperform complex models when uncertainty is high. Beyond his publications, Boettiger is a pioneer in reproducible research, creating widely used tools like the `rdataretriever` and `EML` R packages. His contributions have earned him an NSF CAREER Award and a prominent role in the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. For students and researchers, Boettiger’s work exemplifies how rigorous quantitative methods can inform real-world conservation and resource management.