About Me

I began keeping fw aquariums some 14 years ago, when I inherited a 75 gallon cichlid tank from a late friend of my dad's. Just 9 years ago I began keeping saltwater aquariums. I really began exploring the aquarium field 7-8 years ago when I took on a job at Iowa City Petland and I was forced to really learn my stuff, or face difficult questions from demanding customers. Before long, I was commander and chief there, hailed as a local guru and providing discrete explanations to the demanding and disillusioned alike. There, I was managing livestock; maintenance, treatment, trans-shipping, wholesale ordering, as well as crunching numbers for cost of goods and cost benefit analysis when it came to sick fish. In 2004 I went back to college and obtained an AA from Kirkwood, finding a passion for philosophy, ethics, and writing. I followed up at the University of Iowa with a BS degree in Environmental Hydroscience and BS degree in Evolutionary Biology. Officially my education has included courses in; fluvial morphology, watershed analysis, hydrogeology, oceanography, sedimentary geology, geostatistics, biostatistics, microbiology, immunology, endocrinology, genetics, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and more. Unofficially my private studies include piscine disease pathology, plant biochemistry, aquaculture science and economics, microculture, sharks (elasmobrachs), corals and more. Over the years I've collected an impressive library including books from many of the authors/speakers that are featured at reef events, as well as magazines and scientific journals concerning oceanography, marine biology, ocean engineering, ocean hydrodynamics, reticulate evolution, and so on. Currently I work in the Department of Pathology at the University of Iowa Hospital. My hope is that I can be a great resource for everybody in the community, as well as the hope that I can learn (or relearn) things from my friends who apply these disciplines and many more in keeping reef aquariums everyday. With no experience in administration I hope to somehow prove myself resourceful in finding new ways to promote the club.