About
I am biologist who uses computational biology and bioinformatics to study living things (especially fungi), their genetic material, and the evolutionary processes that shape them. Starting as an undergraduate sociology student at Humboldt State University, I found my interests into biology a little later than some. A child of the Arizona and California deserts, I joke that I had never really seen a tree before. This isn’t true – it was more that I have never lived in a forested part of the world – but I had certainly never seen trees as old and tall as the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) that dominate the Humboldt county coast. In my second year at Humboldt State, I was spending a lot of time out in the woods and wanted to know more. I took an introductory botany course and that was it – I transferred to the Botany department shortly after. I was sold on studying fungi after I learned about the dikaryotic state - two genetically different nuclei living together - that mushrooms exist in for most of their life. I was shocked that no one had every communicated this to me in the countless biology classes I had taken over the years. Ever since then, I’ve been working academically and professionally in the study of fungal biology and evolution. You can find out about what I’ve been up to since on the other pages on this website.
Some fun, interesting, and not work related facts about me:
- I have two cats: Tubby Robinson (yeah he has his own last name) and Jules.
- I play lots of video games: competitive online ones (somewhat poorly) and story-centric action role playing games.
- I build and configure computers in my spare time.
- To get away from the computer, I like to camp, mushroom hunt, and listen to live music outside.
- Long time doubter, I just started going to the gym - and I like it.