I am an invertebrate zoologist and marine ecologist affiliated with the California Academy of Sciences' Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology and UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. Growing up on Richardson Bay in Marin County, California, I've been hooked on rocky shores and nudibranchs ever since, taking photographs when I could dry my hands in the field. I've only been using a digital camera since about 2005. Nothing fancy, at first Canon Powershots, then aPentax WG-III (until the LCD screen blanked out :(, and now an Olympus TG-6. Being able to plunk the recent cameras into tide pools opens up new vistas - without the old need to dry my hands! In June 2020 we moved permanently to what had been our summer place in Sebago, Maine.

In my research I specialize on heterobranch sea slugs (formerly opisthobranch gastropods, and which include the nudibranchs), especially their diets, mode of development, and effects of climate change and variability on their geographic ranges. I enjoy identifying native plants and have been building an album of images of plants from where we lived in the Santa Ynez Valley at the foot of the western end of the San Rafael Mountains in Santa Barbara County.