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Michael O'Donnell At 10 years old, "Moose" made a relatively serious attempt to build a diving bell that would allow him to live on the bottom of a swimming pool. Lack of funding (fortunately) scrapped that plan while it was still in the early stages, but it left him with a burning desire to experience the underwater environment. He has been scuba diving for 11 years, mostly in the kelp beds off the California coast. After briefly studying engineering at UCLA, Moose graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English; essential training for any aspiring marine biologist. Along the way, he spent a summer as a research intern, studying lobster ecology in the Gulf of Maine. Following a brief stint in the business world, Moose returned to UC Berkeley as the administrative assistant to Dr. Mimi Koehl, and witnessed the study of biomechanics in action. While at Berkeley, he managed to augment his undergraduate education with biology courses, then returned to graduate school. Moose is now at the Hopkins Marine Station, the marine science center of Stanford University, working with Dr. Mark Denny. His research focuses on the effects of water flow on intertidal organisms. He is especially interested in the effects of big waves and rapidly flowing water on the organisms that live below them. The primary focus of his research is understanding how the flow environment in the intertidal is different at small spatial scales -- how microhabitats (such as crevices in rocks or near other organisms) provide protection from the larger-scale water flow. As part of this, he studies how the topography of the habitat surface changes with the settlement and growth of organisms. |
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