Dr. Joseph K Gaydos, VMD, PhD

Chief Scientist, University of California,
Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Gaydos is the chief scientist for the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, Wildlife Health Center’s SeaDoc Society Program in Washington State. He has been working on wildlife and ecosystem health issues in the Pacific Northwest for more than a decade. Dr. Gaydos has published dozens of peer-reviewed scientific papers on diseases that impact human and wild animal health in species like harbor seals, river otters, porpoises and killer whales. One of the most important functions that Dr. Gaydos performs is his role as a translational scientist to connect science to decisions being made by local citizens and policy makers regarding the natural resources of the Salish Sea. He has been called to make presentations to the State Senate, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission and other decision-making bodies and was appointed by the Washington Academy of Sciences to serve on the Governor’s Puget Sound Partnership as a member of the Science Panel, which he chaired in 2012.