I love all aspects of biology but my primary teaching areas are Cell Biology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Marine Biology and Oceanography. I’m lucky to spend a considerable amount of time teaching classes at our wonderful waterfront marine lab, the MaST Center. Marine labs are some of my favorite places and I’ve worked at Hopkins Marine Station in California and Friday Harbor Lab in Washington, as well as aboard ships with NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). I also have fun teaching Wilderness Biology as a summer field biology and hiking class focusing on native plants and natural history. Before coming to Highline in 1992, I taught for several years at Shoreline College in Seattle. One of my most rewarding teaching experiences was a year long anatomy and physiology position at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, a historically black college. My educational background includes a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University, and an M.S. in Biology (1984) also from Stanford University, with an emphasis on Neurophysiology. My research focused on the electrophysiology of neurons controlling learning behavior. On a personal level, my wife is also a biologist and we have two children. As a product of recent immigrants, I am half Lebanese and half Scottish. Also, having been born and raised in West Virginia qualifies me as a full hillbilly. I love all manner of outdoor pursuits, especially those that involve water or mountains.