It’s inspiring and encouraging to hear success stories of young seabird scientists and their path in this chosen field.
Julia Matteucci has just completed her first year of a Masters program in the Department of Marine Biology at UAF, and her research project focuses on the migratory and winter movements and distributions of murres and kittiwakes breeding on St. Paul Island.
Thank you Julia for sharing this interview and your advise with students interested in studying biology.
Photo of Julia and her field team. Left to right: Julia Matteucci, Trish Pence and Kristen Gorman on St. Paul Island. Photo by Kristen Gorman
Where were you born?
I was born in Houston, Texas and spent most of my life there, apart from 5 years when my family and I lived in England.
Have you always liked wildlife?
My love for animals began in early childhood and has remained with me throughout my life. I grew up with cats and formed strong attachments to them. Whereas my older sisters took on babysitting jobs, I was more drawn to looking after others’ pets, spending much of middle and high school pet sitting and dog walking for neighbors. I think I have always been fascinated by animal behavior. As a child I loved visiting zoos and as a teenager, I became especially interested in the conservation work that many zoos are involved in. My appreciation for birds also started young, thanks to my mom who is an avid backyard birder. She kept multiple bird feeders around our yard, and I would often spend time watching the birds from our kitchen window. That early fascination with birds eventually brought me to the work I am pursuing today!
When did you decide you’d like to become a biologist, and why?
I became interested in environmental science as a potential career while I was in high school, although it took me some time to fully commit to the idea. I was not the strongest student in math and science, which made me question whether I could succeed in the field. To test this, I participated in a two-week backpacking program in Olympic National Park in Washington. In addition to hiking and camping through the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, my peers and I conducted independent research projects focused on the park’s ecology. It was my first experience with field data collection and I fell in love with it! At the end of the program, we presented our results to program instructors and National Park Service employees, which gave me a glimpse into the kind of meaningful work I could pursue. This experience affirmed my interest in the field and helped me realize that curiosity and dedication could carry me further than natural aptitude alone.
I decided to pursue a career as a biologist because I am deeply curious about how the natural world works. Our environment is so interconnected that it is impossible to isolate one organism or process without affecting others. I find that complexity to be one of the most fascinating aspects of biology. At the heart of my interest is a desire to understand the “why’s” of the natural world.
How was your high school experience?
I attended ACS Cobham in Cobham, England for my freshman year of high school, and Stratford High School in Houston, Texas for my sophomore, junior, and senior years. My academic experience at both schools was both rewarding and challenging. In high school, I particularly enjoyed my liberal arts classes such as English, history, and Spanish. Math and the sciences did not come as naturally to me, so I had to work extremely hard to succeed. Although I struggled in those areas, I regularly sought extra help from teachers and tutors. My dedication paid off as I earned A’s and B’s in those classes and graduated in the top 15% of my graduating class of 500. Outside the classroom, I was involved in my school’s choral ensemble as well as the volleyball and track and field teams, which helped me stay balanced and connected with peers.
Can you explain your university studies after you left high school and why you chose this route?
After high school, I attended Colorado State University (CSU), where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and a minor in Spanish. I chose CSU because I wanted to live in a place that offered greater access to the outdoors, and I was ready for a change from the heat and humidity of Houston. CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources stood out to me for its national reputation in natural resource and conservation programs. I was confident that with its wide variety of majors, I would find one that matched my passion for environmental science and conservation.
My university experience was both fulfilling and challenging. I was able to take diverse and engaging courses that aligned with my interests. Some semesters tested my ability to manage heavy academic workloads and during those times, I leaned on my support system of family and friends. Beyond academics, I was an officer in the CSU chapter of SheJumps, a national nonprofit that promotes participation of women and girls in outdoor activities, where I organized group hikes and member meetings. One of the most transformative experiences was a field-based study abroad semester in Ecuador, where I conducted research in places like the Amazon rainforest, cloud forest, and Galápagos Islands. That hands-on work helped me secure a summer internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska, where I assisted with projects like waterfowl banding, nest surveys, and seabird surveys. Altogether, my time at CSU laid a strong scientific foundation and gave me the real-world experience and confidence I needed to pursue a career as a field biologist.
Choosing an education and career in science can be hard. Have you faced any challenges? And, what has your response to these challenges been?
When I completed my undergraduate degree, there were few to none full time job opportunities. Given that I wanted to conduct fieldwork and work with wildlife, my options at the time were to apply to graduate school or pursue seasonal fieldwork. At that time in my life, I was not ready to apply to graduate school, so I decided to spend a few years working to narrow down my field of interest. Thus, I spent the following five years working seasonal field jobs in Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Wyoming, and Alaska. While I learned a great deal about myself through fieldwork and it ultimately allowed me to find my niche in wildlife biology, it was challenging to never have a stable job during those years. These seasonal positions lasted six months at most, so I was constantly moving and applying for the next job. Because of this nomadic lifestyle, I essentially lived out of my car and was not able to set real roots down, making it difficult to build any type of community. Eventually I tired of this lifestyle and settled in Montana for two years where I worked at a ski resort in the winter and traveled to Alaska in the summer to work with USFWS (so I still did not fully move away from seasonal work!). Taking a break from the constant moving of seasonal work allowed me to reflect on what mattered most to me in my personal and work life. It was during that time that I decided I wanted to pursue a graduate program studying seabirds.
My journey to graduate school from there did not lack challenges, though. In spring 2024, I connected with Drs. Kristen Gorman, Veronica Padula, and Douglas Causey about joining their research team on St. Paul Island. They were eager for a student to join this project and could hire me for the summer to conduct fieldwork, but they informed me that the project lacked financial support for tuition and salary. While this uncertainty was daunting for me, I took a leap of faith. In the end, I decided that this was an opportunity I could not pass up. Luckily, Dr. Gorman was able to secure a teaching assistantship for me through the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (CFOS) which provided me with tuition and salary support for my first year at UAF. I worked tirelessly over this year to submit proposals to fund the next two years of my program. In total, I submitted ten proposals, three of which have been funded! The last year has been a huge learning curve for me and there were times when I really struggled to juggle all the responsibilities required of me. However, I have dedicated numerous hours of hard work to ensure that my studies and research will succeed, and my results show that hard work pays off! Overall, this year has helped me realize that persistence and dedication are key to achieving success.
What inspired you to study seabirds, and what made St. Paul Island a compelling place for your research?
I was first introduced to seabirds during an internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2018, where I assisted on a seabird monitoring project in Prince William Sound as part of the Exxon Valdez oil spill response. I returned to that project in the summers of 2022 and 2023 and each time, I felt a deep sense of peace and joy in the work. Through conversations with my supervisor and colleagues, I gained a deeper appreciation for seabirds and was struck by the diversity within the group. As I continued learning about this group of birds and their overall global decline, I became increasingly committed to their conservation. It eventually became clear to me that seabirds are the group of organisms I wanted to dedicate my career to studying.
I first learned about this project on St. Paul Island at the 2024 Pacific Seabird Group conference, and I was immediately drawn to its strong emphasis on community-driven science. The community of St. Paul Island seek to understand the unseen mechanisms behind the decline in seabird breeding colony attendance, and a team of scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) Tribal Government formed a partnership to answer this question, an action that resonated with me. My career goal is to not only conduct scientifically meaningful research but to do so in partnership with local communities, thus supporting their questions, informing conservation and management, and returning knowledge and agency to those most affected. While discovery remains a vital part of science, I believe it is our responsibility as scientists to ensure our work empowers and serves the communities we engage with.
What advice would you give to students just starting their university career?I would advise students to get to know their professors outside of the classroom. I often attended my professors’ office hours to not only ask questions related to class, but also inquire about their research. This is a great way to make connections and put yourself on their radar, especially if you are interested in their research. Who knows, they may have a position open in their lab or a summer internship. If you already have a relationship with them, they will likely send you the information personally. In that same vein, I would recommend to keep in contact with professors, supervisors, and mentors you have positive relationships with. I have continued to contact previous supervisors and professors to ask for letters of recommendation for jobs, graduate school applications, and even a few graduate student proposals.
For those students who have an interest in a broad topic but have not narrowed their focus yet, I would advise them to keep their options open. Enroll in courses and attend club meetings and talks that pique your interest. If you do this and realize that topic or field of study is not for you, that is great information! I had such a wide-ranging interest in environmental science at first and identifying fields of study I did NOT want to pursue often taught me more about myself than confirming the ones I did. Each time this occurred, I was one step closer to determining where my true passions lied.
My last piece of advice is to not be afraid to take a leap of faith. I am usually someone who likes to have a clear, defined plan, especially when it comes to big life changes. However, some of my most beneficial experiences have resulted from taking a chance and trusting that things will work out. This has been the case for me so far! Though it may sound cliché, you will always be following the right path when you follow your heart and genuinely believe in the work you are doing.