About

I spent my career studying how pollutants change the way aquatic animals communicate using chemicals in their environment, and how pollution interferes with their ability to communicate. For more than two decades I was a university professor and research chair, working at the intersection of ecology, animal physiology, and environmental policy. Along the way I trained graduate students, published in peer-reviewed journals, and advised governments on environmental contamination and resource extraction.

In 2023, I retired from academia and became interested in understanding why a large segment of society has grown distrustful of science, scientists, and scientific institutions. Unfortunately, this distrust comes at a time when society could use science the most. Science is our best chance for finding solutions to the biggest problems facing society today, like climate change, environmental pollution, pandemic control, and biodiversity loss. I’m currently trying to address these issues in a book that examines trust in science during an age of misinformation.

Although I’ve retired from the university, I continue to pursue environmental science as a senior biologist and aquatic toxicologist for a large environmental consulting company. I focus most of my attention these days protecting aquatic ecosystems from environmental contaminants from the mining industry.

My goal for this blog is not only to workshop ideas for my book, but also to explore topics on the environment, technology, and science as they relate to today’s fraught society. Occasionally I write about photography, bicycles, guitars, travel, and simple observations of the world around me. Curiosity, it turns out, doesn’t retire.