I am a marine ecologist interested in fundamental questions about marine biodiversity: Why are there so many species? Where do they come from? Why are they found in the places that they are? I have become especially interested in how these questions may be answered in new and unexplored habitats in the sea, particularly the deepest parts of coral reefs, or mesophotic coral ecosystems. These ecosystems, which are found from approximately 30 to 150 m (100–500 ft) depth along tropical coastlines, may actually contain the majority of existing reef habitat, but they are still poorly understood. My research applies both traditional (e.g., visual surveys and specimen collection) and molecular (DNA-based) approaches to try to understand these still mostly-unexplored habitats.
In addition to my work on mesophotic reefs, I am broadly interested in reef fish biogeography, taxonomy, phylogeography, and systematics. In particular, I am interested in the origins of endemic reef fishes in Hawai‘i, with a focus on cryptobenthic (small, numerous, and hard to find) species.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Toonen-Bowen (ToBo) lab at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, working with both Rob Toonen and Brian Bowen.