Creating solutions to wicked problems
Michael Wagner ‘97 continues to lean on lessons learned at W&M’s Batten School & VIMS
For Michael Wagner, his time at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS was a pivotal chapter that shaped his approach to addressing challenging environmental issues. “My career is very centered around solution development,” he said. “How do you create solutions to a few wicked problems?”
Now a professor at Michigan State University, Wagner’s career centers on developing innovative solutions to complex ecological issues—work inspired by his foundational experiences at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS. “Now, I'm kind of a marine scientist landlocked in this freshwater ecosystem. But all my lessons from VIMS have converged here.”
Living the Batten School & VIMS Life
“We were a relatively small cohort, but we were very active.”
Wagner's journey to the Batten School & VIMS began with his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M and four years at the Environmental Protection Agency. While working in Dallas, he observed the disconnect between well-funded industries and under-resourced environmental agencies. He felt that agencies needed “better scientific training for their people... [and] more faculty at institutions who were willing to engage in the decision-making process.”
What drew Wagner to the Batten School & VIMS was its trifold mandate of education, research and advisory service, which mirrored the land-grant philosophy he admired. He especially valued the practical approach to addressing real-world problems. "That appealed to me, because I anticipated being trained by people who were actively engaged in the process of advising policymakers and managers on the ground," Wagner explained.
The faculty’s mentorship of students, including that of his advisor Herbert Austin, clearly met those expectations. “There were a number of faculty who were invested in student success, and that's always a meaningful experience for students,” he recalled. "They tend to treat students a bit more like colleagues than you encounter in some traditional departments at larger universities, and I very much enjoyed that tradition."
Personal connections between student peers also made an impact. Wagner fondly recalls the strong sense of camaraderie among students, and the great fun had at fall and holiday parties, complete with pig roasts and live bands. “I really enjoyed that there were a lot of community opportunities amongst the students” he said.
A Pragmatic, Problem-Solving Education
“In undergrad, you’re learning what science is, whereas during your master’s you’re learning how to do science.”
Wagner’s graduate assistantship was paid through the long-term striped bass survey, and he used that work to investigate the ecological dynamics of tidal freshwater zones—areas often overlooked by both marine and freshwater scientists. "I always liked working in academic no-man’s lands where people aren't working," he said.
A guiding force in his academic development was the synthesis of scientific perspectives from two mentors on his thesis committee: while Jack Musick emphasized the evolutionary history of organisms, Emmett Duffy studied environmental influences. Wagner said, “It was the melding of those two things—understanding how an animal evolved alongside how it lives in the current environment—that have shaped, in part, how I think about the research that I do.” His thesis research into how fish community structures changed across different river zones ultimately led to several publications.
Wagner also found a highly practical, hands-on education at the Batten School & VIMS. “One of the great skills that can come out of an education where you’re working at sea is that you have to create improvised solutions, because in a boat you can't just pop off to Home Depot,” he said. “It enforced the value of having hands-on mechanical and electrical skills to be able to build things, and it fostered the ability to think creatively.”
Getting to experience research work firsthand, in an immersive environment, left an indelible mark. “To this day, we build a lot of our own equipment,” Wagner said. “I deeply enjoy that, so I really value that [faculty] intentionally made doing research work part of the experience. VIMS made me a better thinker and a better practitioner.”
Researching, and Staying Connected
“Now I bring together all the lessons I learned at [the Batten School & VIMS] about evolutionary structures and marine environments.”
After earning an M.S. at VIMS, Wagner pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, shifting his focus to freshwater ecosystems. His doctoral work explored interactions between native and invasive minnows in mountainous streams, introducing him to the social dimensions of environmental management.
At Michigan State University, Wagner now applies his expertise to one of the Great Lakes' most pressing ecological challenges: controlling the invasive sea lamprey. These ancient, parasitic fish threaten native species and require innovative solutions to manage their populations. "How do you catch a fish that's solitary, nocturnal and doesn’t feed during migration? How do you catch an uncatchable fish?" Wagner asks—a question emblematic of his problem-solving mindset.
"All of our research begins with trying to get a mechanistic understanding of how [the lamprey] does what it does, trying to come to a theoretical understanding of why it would evolve those capacities embedded in its marine environments," Wagner says. He credits the Batten School & VIMS with instilling this integrative approach, which he now uses to design tools and strategies to help agencies manage the invasive lamprey.
Wagner has remained connected to many of his cohort peers, and in 2015 he returned to campus as a speaker for the Batten School & VIMS’ 75th Anniversary Symposium. Today, Wagner tells graduate students, "What do you do well? What do you like to do? What needs doing? Find where those three things collide." He also emphasizes the importance of curiosity. “The core trait of anyone who's interested in science is not intelligence. That's useful, but the core trait of a scientist is curiosity about how the natural world functions and desire to channel that curiosity into a rigorous form of inquiry so you can be satisfied the answer you come up with is meaningful and more likely to be useful than not."