Looking for Species of the Week?
Mmmm. Marine biology. Ever since I was 7, I have wanted to be a marine biologist. In 2001 I got an Sc.B. in aquatic biology at Brown University. Don't bother looking for a page related to my concentration...it doesn't exist. We sort of straddled various departments like Ecology and Oceanography...all 6 of us. I actually don't know how many of us there were, but we are few and far between. Why "aquatic" biology if I want to be a "marine" biologist? Well...aquatic means all significant bodies of water, and marine means the ocean and brackish estuaries. My one joke about all this is: "Brown calls it aquatic biology so they don't discriminate against the rivers and lakes. It's more PC." I didn't say it was a good joke.
Now I am entering my second year as a PhD student in the Valiela lab in the Boston University Marine Program. Depending on how grants and such work out, I will probably be writing my thesis on horseshoe crab population ecology. I have also been the Teaching Fellow for the Marine Mammals courses here, Intro to Marine Mammals and Caribbean Marine Mammals (which is Dominica!). I won "Teaching Fellow of the Year" this past year, which rocked, because that's what I want to do with my skills...disseminate information to others. I don't believe in publishing scientific papers for other scientists to read...I think that has limited application and it doesn't make me happy. Ideally I hope to have a television show, write books for the general public, be on the radio...that sort of thing. It is sort of frowned upon by many scientists, but I think it's important and it makes me happy.
So, I am passionate about all this stuff. I get so excited I start shaking. If you know me...you understand! "So," you ask, "what do you do that relates to all this?" Well, besides read books about it and try to work it into conversations, I also try to get near the ocean as much as possible. One way I do this is by SCUBA diving. In case you've always wondered, that stands for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus." Now you can win that Trivial Pursuit game! I am NAUIcertified, Open Water I. I am a Rescue Diver and a Scientific Diver through the YMCA (from the East-West Marine Biology Program) as well as an AAUS Scientific Diver (rated to 30 ft, a certification I also got in E/W.) I would have my Advanced except for one 60+ foot dive that I need. In relation to diving, I worked at North Atlantic Scuba a few summers ago, and it is my favorite dive shop. Having been an employee, it may seem like this is a shameless plug, but I assure you that it's not- the place really does rock. Go the North Atlantic Scuba if you are within an hour, even an hour and a half radius of Marshfield, MA because it is the best equipped, most friendly dive shop I've ever been into, and I can guarantee you will get the best service and equipment available.
So, I essentially love marine biology, and I hope to share that enthusiasm with everyone else. I hope my page has somehow piqued your interest in the ocean or perhaps answered a question you've always had.