Morag’s research explores the impacts of infectious and non-infectious stressors on aquatic animal health to address community-derived research questions about the health of Alaskan fisheries. Morag is a veterinarian and fish pathologist with expertise in histopathology. She studied to become a veterinarian with specialism in fish health at the University of Glasgow and later obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology and Pathology through the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews with a thesis titled “Investigating the role of harmful environmental organisms in multifactorial gill pathology in salmonids.” Her current projects in Alaska seek to address challenges in fish health monitoring and disease surveillance in Alaska, and provide enhanced information regarding the health of wild stocks.

Morag grew up in Scotland between Edinburgh and the Isle of Lewis. She first came to Alaska in 2018 as part of a research internship working with NOAA at the Little Port Walter research hatchery, before accepting a faculty position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2021. Morag joined the Sitka Sound Science Center in 2024, the same year she became an American citizen. She currently lives in Fairbanks Alaska with her husband and cat. She enjoys (but is not necessarily very good at) skiing, gardening, painting, rock climbing, and (of course) fishing.