I am interested in the key ecological and evolutionary processes that control the structure, function, and diversity of marine ecosystems. My training includes a PhD from the University of New Hampshire in marine ecology, and postdocs at U. C. Davis and the University of Southern California. At Davis and USC I developed my skills in the application of molecular tools to ecological and evolutionary questions. Before coming to Bowdoin College, I was a faculty member in the Department of Biology at the University of Hawaii.  I currently serve as the director of Bowdoin College’s Schiller Coastal Studies Center in Harpwell Maine. We are very fortunate to have recently receive a major gift from the Schiller family, which we are using to develop the 118 property into a residential, year-round marine laboratory that will include new living spaces, a 100 seat conference center, and a 5000 gsf dry laboratory.

Here in the Gulf of Maine, my lab has been answering questions on the impacts of invasive species, and we are focusing on the recently established hybrid zone between two distinct European green crab populations that meet and mate in the northern Gulf of Maine.  I also continue research on a long standing interest in speciation and the processes that maintain species boundaries, most recently by studying the dynamics of gene flow in a parrotfish hybrid complex in the Tropical Eastern Pacific.  See the current research page for more details

My recent teaching efforts have focused on a the development and co-teaching of the innovative Bowdoin Marine Science Semester. This immersion experience is taught at the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, and at field sites in the Gulf of Maine, Bay of Fundy, and the Big Island of Hawaii. During spring semesters, I also regularly teach Understanding Climate Change, a non-majors course that focuses on the science and policy of rapid environmental change.