About me
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Welcome to my personal website! I recently completed my Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in the department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. My dissertation research centered around studying the paleobiology (ecology, evolution, phylogeny, ontogeny) of early Permian dissorophoid temnospondyls from Richards Spur, Oklahoma. I am currently working as a NSF-funded postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, studying Early Triassic temnospondyls from Antarctica (yes, that Antarctica!).
Like many kids, I grew up fascinated by dinosaurs and most things extinct. I spent quite a lot of my childhood reading books about these fantastical animals and dragging my family (primarily my mom) around the greater LA area to any museum or exhibition that was tangentially related to the history of life on Earth. I've had some great opportunities, many with the LA County Museum of Natural History, that cemented my determination to pursue a career in paleontology. I earned my B.A. in geology with a minor in biology from Pomona College (Claremont, CA), where I was involved with research projects led by Brian Kraatz on paleoecosystem modeling and by Lars Schmitz on sensitivity analyses of ecomorphological models. I've also done fieldwork all over the American southwest for the last nine years, mostly split between Jurassic sauropods and Late Triassic vertebrates. At some point, I drifted away from dinosaurs and drifted into amphibians, which I am now enthusiastically engaged with for most of my research. Like many other paleontologists, I am a big outdoors enthusiast and readily hike, camp, and fish when the opportunity presents itself. I'm also very Californian in longboarding (though I don't surf), wearing sandals 365 days of the year (I made it to December in Toronto), and saying 'dude' a lot. I've been playing Pokemon Go since the game came out four years ago, although it's a little more hit-and-miss these days. I am the dad to one (1) mutt who demands tummy scratches every hour, so my work productivity is down a little bit right now! |
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Teaching experience2020
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EducationPh.D., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2020)
University of Toronto B.A., Geology (2016) Pomona College |
