Awards & the Galapagos

Congratulations to Ethan Roberts who won 2nd place at the CSUS Spring Symposium for his talk: "Burrows created by an ecosystem engineer improve survivorship of intertidal invertebrates".  Congrats also to Sarah Albright, who successfully completed her Advancement to MS candidacy.  Other lab members are also working diligently, such as Jessica Nichols who is analyzing mounds of field data, and Jenna Grossman who is helping Sarah with algae fragmentation studies and beginning to design her own project. 

In other news, I am honored to receive the university's Outstanding Teaching Award for the college of NSM. I appreciate the support of my colleagues and students! I do love teaching as much as I love research. I am continuing to analyze data exploring how herbivory varies in introduced and native mangroves and collaborating with a Hawaii elementary school teacher and a former post doc adviser to develop curriculum for K-6 teachers using mangroves as a model system. 

Finally, back in January my wife and I traveled to the Galapagos Islands! It was an amazing trip and I'd recommend every biologist and nature lover to visit some time. It is one of the few places that felt pristine with a diversity of huge tree-like cactus, giant tortoises, strange tropical penguins, and an unparalleled wealth of marine life...including of course, my favorite: the beautiful Sally lightfoot crab.  We have still to fully sort through over 1000 photos we took...but here are a few samples. Enjoy!