Established in 1992

Really into worms.

Growing up I was always more interested in the nightcrawlers my mother was using for bait than the largemouth bass she would land. This early introduction to the natural world and it’s spineless inhabitants inspired me to pursue a career in organismal biology. I’ve since leveled up from the earthworms of the midwest to describing bioluminescent terebellids found in Belizean mangrove forests. I guess you could say, I’m just really into worms.

I graduated from Texas A&M University at Galveston with a doctor of philosophy in Marine Biology. I started in the Schulze Invertebrate Lab in 2017 when I received a 2-year competitive graduate student fellowship to kickstart my research.

In September of 2023, I will be starting a posdoc position with the Osborn Lab at the National Museum of Natural History. There, we will be looking at polychaete adaptations to vision in the open water column. This work will lead to a better understanding of camera-type eye function at small size scales.

My approach to science has always been driven by my curiosity of how and why animals move (or don’t move) through their environment. I’m interested in resolving morphological adaptations involved in animal locomotion and navigation through functional and genetic methods.

Although I have experience primarily studying polychaetes, I am also comfortable working with other invertebrate phyla such as echinoderms, mollusks, and cnidarians.