Guest Contributors

Aquanautix – a PhD marine biologist interested in deep-sea exploration, science, education, and policy. He blogs at Aquanautix Blog.

Dr. Shawn Arellano – A postdoctoral researcher at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her PhD research at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology concerned the reproduction and recruitment dynamics of a methane-fueled seep mussel.

Dr. Allison Boyer – A post-doctoral fellow at Yale and visiting scientist at the Smithsonian Institution whose research encompasses birds and body size evolution.

Bob Breen – Member of the North Central Coast Regional Stakeholders Group California MLPA Initiative and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.

Dr. Jarrett Byrnes – Marine ecologist and postdoctoral research at the Marine Science Institute at UC-Santa Barbara and creator of and blogger at I’m a Chordata, Urochordata.

Dr. Jon Copley – Lecturer in marine ecology at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. He is also director of SciConnect Limited, a company providing training in science communication and media skills. Jon is an avid deep sea explorer and studies the reproductive ecology of deep sea invertebrates, especially those from methane seeps and hydrothermal vents.

Dr. Erik Cordes – An assistant professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. His work centers on the community ecology of methane seeps and deep-water corals in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Peter Etnoyer – Formerly a regular DSN contributor, now a deep-sea coral specialist with NOAA. Peter occassionally contributes as a guest writer now.

Dr. John Guinotte – A marine biogeographer for Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI). He received his Ph.D. from James Cook University, Australia, focusing on predicting coral reef habitat in the Coral and Timor Seas, climate change related threats to coral ecosystems, and modeling marine environmental gradients in the waters of New Guinea.

Dr. Jason Hall-Spencer – A lecturer at the School of Marine Science and Engineering at the University of Plymouth, UK. His research focuses on deep-sea coral ecology, climate change, ocean acidification, fisheries and conservation.

Eric Heupel – Eric is a graduate student at University of Connecticut whose research touches on ecology and policy.

John Hocevar – Marine biologist and Oceans Campaign Director for Greenpeace USA, where he oversees their oceans and fisheries work, including efforts to get major supermarket chains to improve the sustainability of their seafood, to establish a network of large scale marine reserves, to protect the Arctic Ocean from offshore drilling, and to end commercial whaling.

Dr. J. Matt Hoch – A newly minted PhD from SUNY Stony Brook who is interested in the reproductive ecology and life history evolution of barnacles. Now a post-doc at Florida International University.

David Honig – A graduate student in the lab of Dr. Cindy Lee Van Dover at Duke University who studies food webs at chemosynthetic ecosystems in the deep sea. He blogged his expedition to Antarctica for us in 2010.

Dr. Eniko Kadar – A post-doctoral researcher at IMAR Centre and Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores. Her work is focused on the ecotoxicology of hydrothermal vents.

Amanda Kahn – Currently a masters student at the well-known Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, considered to be one of the west coast’s premier marine stations.

Dr. Christina A. Kellogg – A researcher at USGS who studies the microbial communities of coral reefs.

Dr. Dave Kerstetter – A research scientist at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center with a background in applied fishery science and an interest in the intersection between fisheries science and public policy.

Michelle Kinzel – A master’s student in Dr. Dawn Wright’s Sea Floor Mapping and Marine Coastal GIS Laboratory at Oregon State University. She creates geovisualizations for use in high school curriculum.

Brian Linton – A young entrepreneur who mixes business with ocean conservation. He is president and founder of Sand Shack LLC.

Dr. Christopher Mah – A NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and conducts reasearch on the biodiversity, biogeography, evolution, and ecology of Asteroidea. He blogs at Echinoblog too.

Dr. Kristen Marhaver – A Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California at Merced, who lives full-time and studies coral reefs on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. She is an occasional blogger, frequent photographer, and a 2012 TEDGlobal Fellow.

Sara Maxwell – Researcher in Daniel Costa’s laboratory at University of California Santa Cruz studying elephant seal diving physiology and how they can act as indicators of ocean health.

Dr. Peter McCarthy – A research professor at the Center for Ocean Exploration, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University.

Dr. Colin Munn – A senior lecturer in Microbiology at the School of Biological Sciences and senior lecturer in Marine Science and Engineering at the University of Plymouth, UK.

Dr. Wallace J. Nichols – A sea turtle biologist and marine conservation activist affiliated with the California Academy of Sciences, Ocean Revolution, and the Sea Turtle Network, among others.

Dr. Beth Orcutt – Beth is an U.S. postdoc scientist at the Center for Geomicrobiology in Denmark studying tiny microbes that live at the bottom of the ocean and their role in global processes.

Danny Richter – Danny is a Ph.D. student at Scripps Institute of Oceanogaphy studying diatoms and their role in global cycling of nutrients and carbon.

Dr. Michael J. Risk – Professor at McMaster University, Canada, who studies signals of long-term climate change recorded in deep-water corals, as well as stable isotopes in reef organisms as pollution indicators.

Patrick Robinson – Researcher in Daniel Costa’s laboratory at University of California Santa Cruz studying elephant seal diving physiology and how they can act as indicators of ocean health.

Chelsea Rochman – A doctoral student in ecotoxicology at University of California Davis and San Diego State University. She studies plastic pollution in the ocean.

Dr. Michelle Staudinger – A post-doc at the University of Missouri Columbia stationed at the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center in Reston, Virginia. She studies deepwater biodiversity.

Dr. Bryan Wallace – Did his PhD work at Duke University and is now Science Advisor for the Sea Turtle Flagship Program within Conservation International’s Global Marine Division.

Allie Wilkinson – Allie holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Eckerd College, a Certificate in Conservation Biology from Columbia University, and is currently completing a masters in science journalism from Hofstra University. She blogs regularly at Oh For the Love of Science.

Dr. Kurt Williamson – A virus ecologist at University of Delaware.