Personal Profile

The decisions I've made in my life has given me a very diverse background. While my experinces may seem random and unconnected, the underlying theme of life for me has been to find science in the unexpected. Science is everywhere if you look close enough.

Birder

It took me several semesters into my undergraduate career to discover birds and truly how amazing they are. I was immediately hooked and haven't looked back yet. It only makes sense that I as I began to consider what research topics interested me the most; birds were going to be a part of it.

World Traveler

I've been fortunate enough to have several opportunities to travel countries all over the world. Some opportunities were the product of my military experience, but the majority stemmed from either research or the desire to explore. My international experiences thus far include 9 countries: Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Ireland, Scotland, India, Greece, and Turkey.

Hiker

I have always been more comfortable outdoors than in any other setting. I find the complex interactions beautiful and interesting.

Veteran

My military experience taught me leadership, discipline, self-awareness, and surprisingly a little about the scientific method. As a track vehicle (tank) mechanic I was intimately familiar with troubleshooting. At its core, troubleshooting really is the scientific method, observation of a perceived problem in vehicle performance, hypothesizing about the possible causes of the problem, testing independently the different possible causes and how they affect the performance of the vehicle, and finally analysis of the maintenance performed and determining if the problem is fixed.