Robert Suydam has worked as a wildlife biologist for North Slope Borough since 1990. His research interests have focused on monitoring population trends and documenting natural history traits of bowhead whales, beluga whales, eiders, geese and other Arctic species. He has written more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has authored numerous scientific reports. He earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology from California State University-Fresno in 1986 and a master’s degree in biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1995. In 2007 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington’s School of Fisheries. His doctoral work focused on the population dynamics and life history traits of beluga whales from the eastern Chukchi Sea.