Outreach

Hemiramphus far collected in Bootless Bay Papua New Guinea

I am a firm believer that science should not stop at the walls of the Academy. Rather I think in order to bring about the most effective conservation from our research it is critical that we explore a variety of avenues to bring the science to the public. I routinely travel to Fiji with a professional science communicator.  In 2013, I was able to travel with  Helen Scales, in 2014 and 2015 I traveled with Meehan Crist, who has blogged about our trips here and here.

Blogs

I encourage my students to blog and have started my own up here.  You may also read my guest blogs on open access publishing here and here.

Web videos

Short videos are a great way to get information out to a wide variety of audiences. I have a TedEd talks up about my connectivity work in Fiji here and one on the importance of museum collections here. While a postdoc at the Field Museum I was fortunate enough to work with a couple of great videographers. You can see the results here and here. I have also been working with TedEd to create a series of videos about my work in Fiji and why museum collections are important. Students Amy McDermott has used this medium to look at the lives of larval fish while Erin Eastwood tells us the fascinating history of the discovery of the coelacanth.

Press

Our research on the historical ecology of whaling was covered in The Atlantic, Mental Floss and Hakai Magazine.

Research in Fiji has been chronicled in Nautilus magazine (parts 1 and 2)

Our PLOS paper on Fiji fisher knowledge and marine conservation was picked up by the BBC, have a listen here!

Our PLOS on shark toothed weapons paper was picked up by several news sources including the BBC, National Geographic (and again here), the Smithsonian, The Week (who demoted me back to postdoc status), the LA Times and, incongruously, both Rachel Maddow and Fox News. I was also on the air on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks and the Australian Broadcasting Company’s Pacific Beat. Additionally, we have been featured in Archaeology magazine here.

For coverage on connectivity within Fijian coral reefs check out Radio New Zealand’s coverage here.

For coverage on a program I ran bringing together High School students from Chicago and Fiji together, please listen to this amazing podcast piece by Helen Scales (Or read the transcript here).

For older coverage on our expedition to Papua New Guinea click here. For the Discovery article on our speciation in damselfishes click here.