I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Bradford Laboratory (hmmm... he moved!), Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology, The University of Georgia.  Before starting on my present track in ecology, evolution and genetics I spent thirty-odd years as an information systems and Internet engineer.  I received a B.S. Geology, from UGA in August '05 and plan to receive my Ph.D. in May '10.

My doctoral dissertation deals with tradeoffs in resource utilization traits of populations evolving to adapt to climate change.  Referring to Resource Ratio theory in general and Tilman's Graphical-Mechanistic Method in particular I am examining by in vitro simulation and in silico modeling what happens to a population's "optimum consumption" characteristic for a pair of essential resources when it is subjected to extreme environmental stress of the supply and ratio of those resources.

My research interests span ecology, evolution and genetics–particularly evolutionary punctuations resulting from ecological perturbations.

My first interest is in current events linking (mostly climatic or climate-coupled) environmental changes to biological evolution.  When I complete my present studies I will likely seek a teaching position at a "non-R" college or university, or in a museum or similar institution, and to maintain a relationship, a predominately theoretical research involvement, with a laboratory in an institution such as the Odum School.

My second interest is in the interval from the Neoproterozoic thru the latest Cambrian.  Geologically speaking, this runs from the consolidation of Rodinia through the snowball-slushball episodes to the isolation of Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia.  Biologically speaking, this runs from the appearance of the first metazoans thru the evolution and sorting of the stem clades of our present phyla.

My third, back-burner interest is in the stem phylogeny and early evolution of diploblasts, especially Cnidaria.  As time permits I am continuing some field work investigating what may be an evolutionary intermediate between askeletal (sea anemone-like) and calcareous-skeletal (coral-like) cnidaria.

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