Throughout my experience as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, I have enjoyed teaching, and have taken as a primary goal the development of independent thinking by my students. I have served as a teaching assistant with Dr. Karel Liem for Introductory Biology and the Biology of Fishes (the latter both at Harvard University and at the University of Washington), and with Dr. Dick Taylor for Vertebrate Structure and Physiology at Harvard. In these roles, I conducted laboratory dissection exercises, led discussion groups and designed examinations. In addition, I was allowed to develop my own strategies for lecturing and supervising student research. When lecturing, my main objective is to help students learn how to organize and prioritize their study of complex material. In supervising independent research projects, my approach has been to foster a feeling of enthusiasm for the problem at hand, which tends to inspire creativity in student work and allow students to appreciate that their contributions are valuable. I have encouraged students to collaborate in teams and whenever possible to extend their efforts beyond the basic requirements of their assignment. During a recent two-year postdoctoral position, I taught human anatomy with Dr. Ted Goslow at Brown University which was my most substantial responsibility to date as an instructor. In this capacity I lectured, led prosection demonstrations, assisted medical students in the dissection laboratory (12-18 hours per week), and participated in administrative duties. In helping students master a wide array of intricate anatomy, and in being part of a committed and enthusiastic staff, I found this course to be my most gratifying teaching experience.

With a background in biomechanics and evolutionary morphology, I am prepared to teach a number of courses involving organismal form and function, including introductory biology. I would enjoy developing a course on animal behavior and biomechanics with both a lecture component on solid and fluid mechanics and a laboratory component on the transduction of physiological processes. I can also teach a core or advanced-level human anatomy and physiology class. Further, I would like to teach ichthyology, with an emphasis on phylogenetic relationships, functional anatomy, physiology, ecology, and behavior. This upper-division course could involve laboratory dissection exercises, student research projects, specimen collection and other field work. I would be enthusiastic about teaching such a course either on campus or at university-affiliated field station. I believe that my primary research tool, digital particle image velocimetry, can play an important role in teaching by allowing visualization of water flow around model and living organisms. Using this technique as part of assigned laboratory exercises will provide students a relatively easy way of testing their intuitions about biological fluid dynamics. Outside of the classroom, I look forward to supervising graduate students in their independent thesis work, as well as inviting undergraduates into the laboratory to gain important introductory experience in scientific research.