Saint Michael's College

Title: Professor of Biology

Education: B.A. Pomona College; Ph.D. University of Miami

Areas of Expertise/Research Interests: Animal behavior and ecology.

Testimonial: I love seeing students realize that they have the ability to find out something new, perhaps something no one else has discovered.

What do you like most about teaching/working at Saint Michael's College? I like working with students in classes and on research projects. I enjoy collaborative teaching with my colleagues. As an environmental biologist, I also appreciate the teaching opportunities that the natural environment in Vermont provides for my classes.

What is your favorite class to teach, and why? I find it difficult to pick a favorite class, but I would choose the course that I recently developed with other biology faculty and with faculty from the economics and business departments - a first-year seminar course entitled Solving Environmental Problems. This course is an examination of environmental issues from the perspectives of science, business, public policy, economics, and more. The students learn about how science interacts with other fields of study and this makes clear how the scientific method is different from other ways of knowing the world.

What kinds of unique opportunities are available to students in your classes or department? In biology, faculty make an effort to involve students in their own research programs which cover diverse and exciting fields of study ranging from genetics and molecular biology to ecology.