I am a marine biologist who has been fortunate enough to gain work experience diving the reefs of the Caribbean, hiking the remote tundra of the North Slope, Alaska, and most recently, observing the recovery of reefs and reef fishes in Leyte, Philippines following Typhoon Hiyan (called Yolanda in the Philippines). When not gathering data in the field, I enjoy practicing molecular techniques in the Pinsky lab, mentoring undergraduate students, and facilitating graduate student research in molecular ecology.
In the Philippines, our model organism is the Clark’s Anemonefish, Amphiprion clarkii. The great thing about studying these clownfish is that they live in the same anemone for years, and so we can go back and catch the same fish year after year, something that is virtually impossible to do with fish that travel great distances like tuna. Lately, I’ve been very excited about determining clownfish parentage and figuring out how far these little guys travel from their home anemone when they hatch from the eggs.
