Teaching experience

Taught Introductory and Advanced Finfish Histology, Histopathology and Neoplasia for 7 years in the Aquavet I and Aquavet II programs (Cornell Aquavet) while on the faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University; have participated in team teaching of Health and Colony Management of Laboratory Fish for 11 years at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine; participated in curriculum revision at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell to institute Socratic case-based small group learning as a key feature of the medical education process.

Ecampus: Adapted Microbiology 330, Disease and Society, for presentation as an Extended Campus course first offered in Summer 2014. The course focuses on the effects of social and economic inequality on health and disease in the U.S. and globally and is part of the Baccalaureate Core at Oregon State University. It fulfills the requirement for credits in the Difference Power and Discrimination category.

Participated in team taught course Fish and Invertebrate Health Management for students in the Aquarium Science Program at Oregon Coast Community College 2011-2015. Taught infectious and noninfectious diseases of aquatic animals.

Research

My research has included studies of

• a protist parasite affecting early life stages of zebrafish,
• 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) toxicology and associated lesions in a variety of fish species,
• studies of interactions of halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons with disease resistance and immune responses of salmonids,
• early life stage toxicity of TCDD and PCBs in salmonids,
• effects of TCDD on sexual development,
• fecundity and fertility in zebrafish,
• nutritional pathology,
• field studies investigating the causes of tumor epizootics in brown bullhead, white suckers and lake trout,
• studies of gamma radiation, simulated galactic cosmic rays and ultraviolet radiation on the lens of eyes in zebrafish

My research group at Cornell University discovered thiamine deficiency as the basis for a devastating, longstanding stage-specific early life stage mortality problem causing reproductive failure in landlocked Atlantic salmon in certain of New York’s Finger Lakes. We found that consumption of a diet high in the introduced forage fish alewives caused the thiamine deficiency in breeding female fish due to high levels of thiaminase in the alewife tissues.

I have investigated dietary, husbandry, infectious, and genetic influences on susceptibility of zebrafish to spontaneous and carcinogen-induced tumors. I have collaborated with Dr. Donald Buhler of Oregon State University to clarify the roles of various cytochrome P450 enzymes in the carcinogenesis processes in zebrafish. I have a longstanding collaboration with Dr. Zhiyuan Gong of the National University of Singapore to characterize gene expression in liver neoplasia using the zebrafish model to better understand the role of specific oncogenes and interactions between suites of oncogenes in the carcinogenesis process.

Background

Education

Ph.D. Cornell University

DVM Michigan State University

B.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Michigan State University