The Crew

So grad school is on full blast and showing no signs of slowing down! I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up, though. I’m happy to say that my research project is already moving at a decent pace even though it’s only my second month in the Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology. My first field days on San Clemente Island are coming up in a week and I can’t wait to share my adventures with everyone. We will be getting to know our system and trying out some preliminary experimental designs to measure herbivore grazing rates in black abalone habitats. Should be pretty fun! I will have an awesome crew out there with me. I’ll tell you a little bit about them:

My advisor, Dr. Jeremy Long, is community ecologist who studies the relationship between plants and their herbivores, and how their interactions shape communities and ecosystems. He is an expert in chemical signaling and a boss at both lab and field experiments. Also, just a great man and a hell of a dude to chill with. Jo joke, my advisor is a beast on the dance floor and the mic.

My lab tech, Wendi White, was my lab mate when I was an undergrad here at SDSU. Through some awesome peeps at the Navy, we were able to hire her, full time. Wendi graduated with a BS in Biology (2018) and wants to get more research experience before she applies to a graduate program. Her interests in community ecology overlap very well with everyone else at the lab. Although she is mainly working on the Abalone Project, Wendi is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to ecology. Wendi’s main interest is ecosystem subsidies and in her spare time she is working on a wrack project with Jeremy and Dr. Rulon Clark.

Luke Miller, the new professor in the Department of Biology at SDSU. Luke seems like a great guy, very approachable and incredibly talented. He is interested in ecophysiology, biomechanics and programming (R, C++, MatLab, LabVIEW). I recently attended his talk where he shared some awesome work he did with electronics—this guy attached sensors to mussels that allowed him to record movement, temperature, and heart rate. How cool is that?? Anyway, Luke is getting his lab going next to mine and I assume he is going to need students soon! go find him! lukemiller.org

Last but not least, we will be joining forces with NMEC, a collaboration of the Navy’s SPAWAR and NAVFAC people who monitor wildlife on the Channel Islands. They are amazing people, I am lucky to work with Suzie Graham, Paul Wade, Brian Hong, Brendan Saunders, Christiana Salles, Jessica Bredvik, Dana Schrimpf, Sabrina Mashburn, and Greg Clune.