PERSONAL INFORMATION - HISTORICAL VIEWS - PRE-BIOLOGY TO PRESENT
{page under construction -- updated 10 Sep 1998}
This page basically summarizes the events that led to my becoming a biologist, a herpetologist and tropical biologist, and a professor at FIU. If you want to learn more about my academic life -- see my research and teaching pages.
The College Years - Undergraduate
Graduate School - The University of Miami
I was born and raised in Southern California and spent my "pre-biology" years on the sands of Seal Beach, Sunset Beach, and others in Orange and San Diego counties. I attended Los Alamitos High School and graduated mid-year in 1972. Los Alamitos High School - Home of the Griffons was unusual in that the scheduling was flexible. When it was founded (in 1968) it was the only high school with daily demand flexible scheduling. Rather than having seven periods per day, there were several shorter modules (15 minutes long) and a computer generated a schedule daily -- some classes (like scheduling -- the equivalent of a home room) were one mod, others were two (e.g., discussions in history, biology and government) and others were three mods (e.g., lectures in math courses, sciences, history). During unoccupied periods, one was supposed to go to an "RC" (a resource center -- every department had one). This was a radically different approach to education and the computer generated a schedule each day for over 2000 students. If one had a B average, one could rearrange their classes to avoid conflicts. I didn't always appreciate the subject matter during my high school years, but I did learn how to be a student -- show up for class on time, take notes, study for and do well on exams. High school was definitely training for college. The freedom the system provided really helped prepare me for college life. Many of my friends had a better time, but they did not suceed in the system. Not long after I graduated and left, they abolished the flexible scheduling system. Now Los Alamitos High School is a standard sort of high school and is also the home of the Orange County High School of the Arts. I will always value my high-school days for friendships that developed during a very special time. I still see some of my old friends at reunion events.
During this time in my life I loved "nature" and spent plenty of time on beaches all over California, the redwoods of Big Sur, and the mountains of Lake County (north of the Napa Valley -- famous for fine grapes) and the deserts of southern California (e.g., Joshua Tree) -- but I was not technical about it. I did not start college as a biologist, rather I was interested in Chinese history and philosophy. I started to take science courses in college because I decided I would become become a dental hygienist (my father was a dentist). It seemed to me a sure way to financial independence and one could complete a junior college program in two years. In those days, junior college was an incredible bargain -- the fees included $3.75 each semester (for a health fee) and the cost of the books [Historical Note: This incredible value has basically disappeared -- for more information look into the effects of Proposition 13 (June 1978) on higher education in California]. I went to Cypress College from the time I graduated from Los Al in January of 1972 until sometime in 1974 or 1975.
The College Years - UndergraduateSo there I was -- a working college student (bookkeeper, cocktail waitress, lab prep person) taking necessary pre-requisites for the dental hygeine program and my Human Anatomy and Physiology instructor (Bob Vandergrift) opened the door to my career as a biologist. I discovered that there were many unanswered questions and I latched on to this wonderful lack of knowledge. The process of discovery is truly precious and I have been fortunate to do so much "exploration" of the planet (see the Research Page).
At Cypress College I took general chemistry and general biology (for majors from Brian Myres and Flo Thomas) in addition to the human anatomy and physiology course. During this time period I started traveling around to watch birds. I started at the Upper Newport Back Bay, in the deserts, and I often went to southern Sonora state in Mexico with a group of friends. We camped near the Rio Cuchuhaqui. This place was unbelievable -- parrots, box turtles, bizarre tree frogs (Pachymedusa dacnicolor), kingfishers, snakes just to name a few. Many species were tropical and were at the northern limit of their ranges, many species were temperate and were at the southern limit of their ranges, and many species were found elsewhere in the Sonoran desert. It was a wonderful place to learn about organisms. I first went to this site during the year I took General Biology with a special topics course (led by Brian Myres). There were about 20 of us and we all had an incredible time.
Pachymedusa dacnicolor
After spending two or so years at Cypress College I went to University of California Irvine. I spent exactly one quarter there. Beautiful campus and great hawks working the hillsides but the classes were not what I was looking for. I wanted to take all the "ologies" and learn about organisms. Many of the instructors at Cypress had trained at California State University Fullerton and I went there after my quarter at Irvine. I learned a lot of biology there. I took Genetics (from Jerome Wilson), Ecology (from Roger Seapy), and Cell and Molecular Biology (from Marv Rosenberg and Bob Koch) as the basic science courses. I learned a lot from my courses in Natural History of the Vertebrates (from Bayard Brattstrom), Comparative Animal Physiology (from Lon McClanahan), Herpetology (another Bayard Course), Animal Behavior, and Animal Ecology (both from Joel Weintraub). All of these courses had mandatory labs that met 6 hourse a week). I graduated with a degree in biology from CSUF in 1977.
I was involved in many activities as an undergraduate -- the biology students were an active group (the Society for the Advancement of Biological Sciences). We stayed on top of departmental workings (a student could attend faculty meetings and report back to the student group -- for at least two years I was the student rep). There was an annual fund raising event for the arboretum called "the luau" and it was very popular with everyone. I also went to the field frequently with courses or with grad students doing research. I hung out with several graduate students and other undergraduates (notably Nancy Mann, Howard Bissell, Chris Ducey, Mick Bondello, Rom Whiteman, Carl Babb, Tony Huntley, Al Romspert, Harvey Suprenaut). I still see some of my old college buddies (Mann and Huntley). Great parties during these days!!! When I graduated I thought of joining the Peace Corps but ended up staying at CSUF for a master's degree.I bumbled around CSUF -- I took great classes (e.g., Biogeography [from Mike Horn], Plant Taxonomy [from Gene Jones], Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy [from Bill Presch], several seminars [from Horn, McClanahan, and Presch]) and learned how to teach labs in general zoology and human anatomy. Still having great parties -- work hard and play hard. I had a very difficult time coming up with a reasonable master's project and when I got a chance to go for the PhD, I took it.
I attended my first scientific meeting in 1978 -- the annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Tempe, AZ. I was still a student at CSUF. I had a great time at the meeting and after the scientific meeting I went with several folks to the Catch-22 beach near Guyamus, Mexico. Jay Savage was on the trip and we talked quite a bit about what I was interested in (in those days, functional anatomy of pectoral girdles of frogs). I dreamed of going to the tropics since I started working in Mexico and I talked a lot about that with Jay. He had been working in Costa Rica for years and he indicated he would take me as a student. In 1978, Proposition 13 was passed in California. Many of the teaching assistants at CSUF were concerned about our funding and I told Jay I would apply to his school (The University of Southern California) if Prop 13 passed. The taxpayers of California successfully revolted and I applied to USC. I was accepted to the PhD program and started in January 1979. My lab mates included Jim Polisini, Charles Dock, Ron Harris, Sue Lieberman, Mike Miyamoto, Craig Guyer, Marc Hayes, and Barbara Kimball. In addition, I hung out with Lynne Herold, John DMhowski, Margaret Neighbors, Bruce Thompson, Buddy Winn, Diane Perry, Larry Allen, Lise Grosman, and Ray Wells to name the most important persons. Great Parties during the USC days!!!
I always wanted to go to the tropics. Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah were wonderful and I was drawn to these forests. The tropics are home to incredible diversity, heat, humidity, bugs, birds, and complex biological interactions. I slowly crept through Mexico towards the Isthmus of Tehuantepec inching towards the tropics and finally made it in the summer of 1979. I applied for a graduate field course offered by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) during my first semester. I was floored when I was accepted to the course (Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach). I went to Costa Rica for the first time in June of 1979 -- I traveled with Craig Guyer, Mike Miyamoto, and Jim DeWeese to collect anoline lizards and eleutherodactyline frogs in many different parts of the country. I learned how to sip rum neat while trying to sleep in an old church building (a concrete pad and a tin roof) during a rainstorm.
I loved it. I loved walking around the woods at night, I loved working on hillsides looking for frogs and lizards in the litter, crossing a swinging suspension bridge on the way to Dominical, and learning to speak Spanish. I love the way it smells in the forest and the odors change continually as you move through the habitat. There are so many different kinds of things to see. The air feels different.My OTS course was a life-changing experience. I met folks (Beth Braker, Jim Snyder, Nalini Nadkarni) that I still know today. I learned more during those eight weeks than I had during the preceding three years and I was convinced I was going to work in the tropics. I loved that there were all kinds of species that were not named and that when stories about these organisms were told, they were frequently confused stories. I was fascinated by the symbiotic relationships going on everywhere. I was hooked. I worked with Dendrobates pumilio for the first time in my OTS course -- doing a field problem with Stan Rand. My OTS course was coordinated by Doug Gill and Bob Denno (University of Maryland). Jonathan Coddington (then Harvard, now at Smithsonian) was the teaching assistant.
During the eight weeks of the course we visited: La Selva (an OTS field station), Palo Verde (an OTS field station), Playa del Coco, Monteverde, Cerro de la Muerte, Corcovado National Park, and Las Cruces (another OTS field station). In those days, the courses flew in to Palo Verde and Corcovado during the wet season in small fixed-wing planes-- wild rides. I liked La Selva and Corcovado the best. During the summer I worked with Bob Denno on herbivory by grasshoppers on Passiflora species. It was a world of extremes -- my favorites were the lowlands and the high elevation site.
In 1980 I returned to La Selva and continued my herbivory study. I also fooled around with Dendrobates pumilio to see if I could work with them. I also visited Guatemala that summer with my stepmother. Tikal is a magical place.
I went back to La Selva in 1982 to work on my doctoral project. I designed an experiment to study territoriality in the strawberry poison frog, Dendrobates pumilio (see the Research page). I stayed in Costa Rica until September 1983 and then moved to Miami to finish my PhD.
Since my days as a graduate student I have worked in Panama, Venezuela, Guyana, and Papua New Guinea. (see the research part of my website). I will always work in the tropics........
Graduate School - The University of Miami
