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- Hometown: Clark, New Jersey
- Current school: Rutgers University Cook College
- Major: Ecology and Evolution
- Career goals: After completing my B.S. in Ecology & Evolution I hope to pursue a PhD in the same area of research and do field work in Africa, looking at how ecology shapes carnivores in different parts of the continent. This is perhaps the most "academic" goal I have, but beyond what I will do to make a living, I want to help foster understanding about science and the importance of evolution in the public mind. In recent years we have lost two great popularizers of science, Stephen Jay Gould and Carl Sagan, and although they have left big shoes to fill I hope to do my part to carry on their legacy. A scientist is responsible not only to himself and his colleagues, but to the public at large, owing them the full disclosure of what he has learned from the natural world so that they too can understand and appreciate the "endless forms most beautiful" that nature has produced.
- Favorite Song: Green Day - "Minority" Green Day's album "Warning" came out when I was a senior in high school and the single "Minority" has always struck a chord with me. I really was a "minority" all to myself during my high school days, fed up with the way the school (and town) revolved around football, popularity contests, and drinking. To my dismay, when I arrived at college I realized that the same issues that I confronted in high school didn't disappear; they just changed faces. Indeed, these days when I see the social injustice so rampant in our society, I would much rather be a part of the minority clamoring for change, and so the song is relevant to me to this day.
- What Motivates you to Blog? Nicolaus Copernicus once wrote "For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them. I am aware that a philosopher’s ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should be shunned," and such is my personal philosophy when it comes to blogging. Blogging is a wonderful way to share ideas, debate, and develop intelligence through a wonderful new medium, the debates I've had with creationists, secular scientists, and random visitors doing far more to help further my thought processes than just keeping my thoughts to myself. Beyond the advantages blogging provides to students wishing to make an impact on others, America today is seemingly under the spell of pseudoscience, belief in astrology, creationism, alien abductions, etc. being surprisingly widespread and pervasive. Indeed, it seems more people want to believe that some distant star is dictating whether they're going to have a hot date tonight than recognize the urgent reality of man-made global climate change or the magnificence of evolution. While public education when it comes to science is certainly lacking, scientists themselves have been locked in the "Ivory Tower" for too long, and I blog because I want to reach out to those who are unfamiliar with important scientific ideas, hopefully fostering the fact that we must be responsible stewards of Earth if we are to preserve ourselves and the innumerable other creatures we share this planet with. This is a crucial time for science, when the selfishness and narcissism that has pervaded human society (especially here in America) has battered the planet to the point where we cannot be sure our children will inherit anything more than the smoking shell of a once beautiful place. I believe a greater understanding of science and our connections with the planet we live on can help prevent such a cruel fate, and so I have a constant motivation to keep speaking out.
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