As an undergraduate at Cornell University, I started on a winding research path that took me from behavioral research on domestic dog urinary behavior to kinematic video analysis of common eider duck predator-escape behaviors. Studying eider ducks involved small-boat fieldwork in the waters surrounding Shoals Marine Laboratory, a first for me and the start of an eventual fascination with the marine environment and those species that move and live within it.

After graduating, I moved on to West Chester University and a masters degree with Dr. Frank Fish working on the anatomical structure of dolphin tail flukes. During this time, I also assisted with a project studying the physics of dolphin movement. I continued my graduate career at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station under the mentorship of Dr. Jeremy Goldbogen. For my dissertation, I was able to integrate my experience with marine mammals, my love of animal movement, and my passion for the marine environment into a project focusing on the swimming performance and feeding efficiency of large whales. Understanding how these species move within and reacts to their local environment can give us important insights into their life history and ecology.

Today, I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Marine Mammal Research Program at the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology. For more information about my current and past research projects, please visit my research page. Or visit my CV to find out more about my other experience.