Dr. Robert M. Hughes
Dr. Robert (Bob) M. Hughes passed away with friends and family in attendance on June 23, 2025. Bob was a leader, warrior, and champion for fisheries and aquatic sciences, for policy, for colleagues, and for good works. Bob completed his Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon in 1979, he received a master’s in Resource Planning and Conservation from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, in 1973 and a B.A. in Psychology/Biology from the U of M in 1967.
Bob had a tremendously active career contributing to AFS policy efforts, headwaters stream analyses, and other endeavors with his many collaborators until his last weeks. Bob’s own resume catalogues his 40-plus years of excellence in the aquatic sciences, contributing to a vast array of projects over 4 continents. Bob was a foundational member of the USEPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP/National Aquatic Resource Survey). This work has been pivotal for developing stream and lake ecology into a quantitative science. The EMAP team intricately developed processes and methods to capture all elements of physical, biological, and chemical aspects of aquatic habitat and transfer them into analyzable data. Bob has authored >180 papers (and counting), edited 6 books, was a fellow for both the Society for Freshwater Science and the American Fisheries Society, and has received numerous awards for his papers.
Bob was a cornerstone of aquatic science policy efforts for many years. Bob tirelessly contributed to letter after letter representing fish, fisheries, and aquatic ecosystems. Bob was a force in a lithe, skier, soccer-playing frame complemented by a fearless spirit and marvelous wit. We are fortunate in that there are even now forthcoming works (14 midway through 2025 and counting) that will bear Bob’s name as an author, and a cavernous back-catalogue exists to visit over the years. For those of us who feel a large void where Bob once mentored or collaborated with us, some insights from a recent publication of Bob’s encourage us to continue to move forward.
Certainty in science is rare due to the vast interrelatedness and broad scales of studied phenomena. We cloak our uncertainty in esoteric terms such as confidence intervals that confuse and lessen credibility amongst policy makers and the public. We use weak and ambiguous language when instead we should speak about direct and indirect implications of action or inaction based on our findings. We as aquatic scientists should be… “strong advocates for prescriptive and protective natural resource actions—based on…science—to halt and reverse the systemic degradation of those resources”. (Hughes et al. 2023).
Bob truly had a global influence, yet his work is more than an impressive CV; but was a heroic call to arms to assess and protect all our waters. For many of us, there were no goodbyes from Bob but rather a quiet bow and instructions for projects yet to be completed.
Dave Penrose shared this quote from Bertrand Russel, which captures so much of Bob’s spirit: “An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks and rushing passionately past rock and over waterfalls. Gradually, the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. Those who can see life in this way will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things they care for will continue”. Thank you, Bob, for everything, your ability to make friends with all kinds of people, to inspire and mentor both peers and emerging scientists, has ensured we shall carry on the work.
- Susan A. R. Colvin, Department of Biological Sciences, Minnesota State University-Mankato, Mankato, Minnesota, 56001