I was born on the Fourth of July, 1967, in Upstate New York. My mother died of breast cancer when I was five. I grew up the youngest of three in a mixed family, and I found refuge early in school — in biology, geometry, history, music, and creative writing. The teachers who took me seriously changed everything.
Someone at SUNY Oswego told me to be a generalist. To learn everything I could, from anyone I could. I took that seriously too. Zoology at Ohio State, then ecology, evolution, and conservation biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. A postdoctoral fellowship in computational molecular biology at Penn State, under Masatoshi Nei and Webb Miller. Faculty positions at UMass Lowell and the University of Pittsburgh. Twenty-plus years of research, more than fifty peer-reviewed papers, three books, and somewhere along the way, the realization that the most interesting questions are always at the edges of fields, not the center.
I’ve walked in the Amazon. I’ve watched ant colonies for hours. I’ve been a patient advocate for eighteen people with cancer, starting with my own family. I’ve taught genetics, evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, and clinical research to students who still write to me. I’ve made noise in public health when the science demanded it, and I’ve learned to be quieter when the forest has something to say.
This site is where I write as a person, not as a scientist or an advocate. Personal reflections on the natural world, on mathematics, on teaching and grief and fatherhood and place. If any of it is useful to you, I’m glad. If it just passes some time on a Tuesday afternoon, that’s fine too.
I live in Western Pennsylvania. I hike, jog, swim, and watch things carefully.
For my scientific and policy writing, visit Popular Rationalism. For courses and research, visit IPAK-EDU.
