As a native of Maine, I grew up exploring the evergreen forests and rocky beaches of New England in places like Acadia National Park. It was the numerous tidepools and hidden seaweed habitats of Maine’s frigid coastline that first peaked my interest in ecology and the ocean. Searching these habitats for the creatures and plants hidden in the water and watching how they interacted was my first exploration into ecology, and led me down the path to oceanography and my PhD.
