Six Early-Career Scientists Awarded Delta Science Fellowships

The Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program and California Sea Grant are pleased to announce six recipients of the 2025 Delta Science Fellowship. Each fellowship provides up to two years of support to pursue research that will advance the state of knowledge underlying high-priority science issues that affect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and its management. 

“This fellowship allows us to develop the science we need to serve this region while also training a new generation of scientists,” says Dr. Lisamarie Windham-Myers, lead scientist for the Delta Science Program. “Research supported by the Delta Science Fellowship Program consistently delivers high-priority scientific insights that inform water and environmental decision-making in the Delta, such as monitoring improvements for endangered fish and forecasting land use impacts of future climate and water policies.”

The purpose of the Delta Science Fellows Program is to train the next generation of science leaders in the Delta by bringing together student and postdoctoral researchers with academic and community mentors. California Sea Grant administers the fellowship program on behalf of the Delta Science Program, which funds five fellows this year from the University of California and California State University systems. Additionally, the Delta Stewardship Council’s Planning and Performance Division provides funding for one fellow.

The 2025 Delta Science Fellowship awardees are:

• Nihar Chhatiawala, a doctoral student at the RAND School of Public Policy, will establish new frameworks to identify where water management decisions might lead to unexpected negative impacts.
• Sebastian Gonzales, a master’s student at UC Davis, will verify that acoustic transmitters can serve as an effective scientific tool for tracking endangered longfin smelt.
• Sk Shahinur Islam, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, will create tools that can monitor the health and population of endangered smelt by collecting free-floating genetic materials.
• Dana Myers, a graduate researcher at UC Santa Barbara, will develop new tools to track water flow in the estuary.
• Abhinav Sharma, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Cruz, will use computer models to predict the impacts of policies on Central Valley water.
• Rebecca VanArnam, a doctoral student at UC Davis funded by the Delta Stewardship Council’s Planning and Performance Division, will evaluate and expand an existing youth-focused community science program in the Central Valley.

About the Delta Science Program

The mission of the Delta Science Program is to provide the best possible unbiased scientific information to inform water and environmental decision-making in the Delta. The Delta Science Program carries out its mission by funding research, synthesizing and communicating scientific information to policy and decision-makers, promoting independent scientific peer review and coordinating with Delta agencies to promote science-based adaptive management. The Delta Science program is managed by the Delta Stewardship Council, an independent state agency that works to advance the state’s coequal goals for the Delta: achievement of a more reliable statewide water supply and a healthy and protected ecosystem, both in a manner that protects and enhances the unique characteristics of the Delta as an evolving place.