This work allows me to work in some of the most beautiful places in this world.

Philadelphia

The City of Brotherly Love is my beloved and chosen home for a myriad of reasons. Philly is a hotbed of delicious food, innovative social activism, cheap art, and secret parks.

Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS)

RUMFS is housed in a former Coast Guard station six miles down a thin country road, deep in the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Reserve. Atlantic City twinkles on the horizon, but otherwise, marsh and ocean stretch as far as the eye can see. In the most populous state in the union, the station looks out over what many consider to be the cleanest estuary on the east coast: Great Bay, fed by the Mullica River that meanders through the great New Jersey Pinelands. Nesting osprey pairs abound, herons congregate around the marsh pools, and swallows swoop around the power lines.

Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Magdalena Bay sits about two-thirds of the way down the  Baja Peninsula, looking out on the great Pacific.  An estuarine lagoon, the bay acts as the winter home and nursery for migrating gray whales, and provides nutrients for one of the world’s most abundant regions for large pelagic predators such as striped marlin. I spent a semester here, and thought I might never be in such a beautiful place ever again in my life.  One afternoon, I spotted every heron in the bird book out on the marsh.

Eg-Uur Rivers and Lake Hövsgöl, Mongolia

Mongolians call Lake Hövsgöl “the Blue Pearl of Mongolia,” and travel from all over the country on unpaved roads to vacation here. The Eg and Uur rivers, which flow downstream from the lake, are home to the mighty (and endangered) taimen, the world’s largest salmonid fish. The meandering rivers are framed by rolling green hills, while herds of horses gallop alongside and drink from their cool waters.