About Me

I loved biology from the first time I encountered it in the ninth grade. My specific interest in developmental biology was fostered by an opportunity I had early in graduate school to work at a marine lab in Bermuda, where I fell in love with the developing sea urchin embryo, which has remained the model system that I’ve worked with ever since.

I tell students that developmental biology is the study of becoming-transforming from a single cell to a complex organism. It raises a fascinating series of questions and Susquehanna has provided me with the chance to ask those questions with the help of many talented students.

I believe that conducting research with students is in many ways the best form of teaching-the apprenticeship model. Working collaboratively to discover things no one else has seen before is a transformative part of the SU student-faculty experience, and the skills students gain from that translate so well to so many post graduate paths. However, it’s not just the science that makes the relationship I have with my students so rich and rewarding-it’s the chance to get to work with them outside the classroom, to learn about them as people, and to support them as they decide what they want to do with their lives. That is the best part of the job.

Courses Taught