Nathan Muchhala
has been working on bat pollination in the tropics since 1999.  For his Ph.D with the University of Miami, Nathan conducted fieldwork in the cloud forests of the Andes of Ecuador, where he captured nectar bats to study their diets and videotaped their visits to bat-pollinated flowers.  Through experiments with bats and flowers in screen tents, he explored various aspects of the ecology and evolution of bat-flower interactions.  During this fieldwork he also discovered a remarkable new species of nectar bat which can extend its tongue to 150% of its body length (the longest tongue, relative to body size, of any mammal).  A current project of his, as a post-doctoral researcher with the University of Toronto, involves studying the co-evolution of this bat with the long-tubed flowers that it pollinates.  Other current research includes comparing the effectiveness of bats and hummingbirds as pollinators, and building computer simulations to explore the evolution of pollination systems.  See Nathan’s website www.bio.miami.edu/muchhala/home.html for more information on his research, including photos, videos, and publications. Get excited to join Nathan and Kevin Murphy as they work with Saba's bat population, considered unique for 5-7 species in just 5 square miles.

Sign up for a field project with Kevin and Nathan; don't miss their kickoff Opening Night presentation at Scout's Place at 5:30 a.m. on October 1 as well as a follow up within the week.

Kevin Murray
will be working with Nathan Muchhala to study Saba's bat populations.  Kevin received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. He began his research career as an undergraduate studying anti-predator behavior in larval salamanders. For his Master’s Degree, he worked on identifying the echolocation calls of species of bats throughout the Midwest. Following his Master’s Degree, he studied the roosting habitat of species of bats in the Oregon and the endangered Indiana Bat in Missouri. In 2002, Dr. Murray began his Ph.D. at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida studying the genetic structure and evolutionary history of several bat lineages in the Greater Antilles. His research focused on the genetic structure and mating system of the Buffy Flower Bat, Erophylla sezekorni in Exuma, Bahamas, but also included work throughout the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and the Domican Republic. Kevin continues to focus his research on the evolution, conservation, and island biogeography of bats.
Sign up for a field project with Kevin and Nathan; don't miss their kickoff Opening Night presentation at Scout's Place at 5:30 a.m. on October 1 as well as a follow up within the week.

Vince Capone
is a Marine Scientist with over 20 years of professional experience mapping and searching the world’s oceans using the latest marine technology. His degree in marine science included studying Tropical Reef Ecology at the West Indies Laboratorty in St. Croix.  Vince has been an instructor at the Isle of Shoals Marine Lab and Dowling College. He has a Master’s degree in marine science with a minor in experimental statistics. He started diving in 1976 on New Jersey shipwrecks. He was nominated as a Fellow to the International Explorer’s Club in 1989.  Currently he is president and founder of Black Laser Learning, a company dedicated to training and enhancing people’s remote sensing skills. The company founded in 2004 has recently released a second edition of the, The Not in the Manual Guide ^TM to Side Scan Sonar Image Interpretation. Join Vince on Saba as he introduces the many possibilities of marine science to Saba's youth while conducting an underwater mapping project of one of Saba's dive sites.  With the use of the latest technology, Vince will create a high resolution bathymetric map  to help us understand how water depth and ecosystem morphology affect the sea creatures of Saba.  Join us for this exciting Saba event:

Vince will be on Saba October 9-14 2008; monitor this site for scheduling updates.

Chris Parsons
is currently teaching Oceanography, Marine Conservation and Marine Mammal Biology and Conservation at George Mason University in Virginia.  Chris was the Director of the Research and Education Departments of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) from 1998 to 2003.  Parsons is also a research associate at the University Marine Biological Station, Millport.  His involvement in whale and dolphin research has been ongoing for more than a decade spanning the globe from South Africa, India, China and the Caribbean as well as the U.K.  Prior to working at HWDT, Parsons was involved in research on Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and finless porpoises in Hong Kong and China which involved studies on the behavior and ecology of Hong Kong's cetaceans, marine pollution and its effects on marine life.  Parsons, like his marine mammal scientist wife, Naomi Rose, is a member of the International Whaling Commission.  Join Chris to understand the perils facing these gentle giants and how present day whaling rights sales in nearby islands are being addressed from a scientific and political perspective.

Dates on Saba to be announced soon.
 

Barbara Richardson
is recognized worldwide for her study of the assemblages of invertebrate animals that live in bromeliads and other phytotelms [plant held waters]. Since 1993 she has collected, counted, identified and analysed the species richness of the animal communities in these bromeliad microcosms, especially in the rain forests of Puerto Rico, but also in Dominica and Costa Rica, and hopes next year to study the Saban bromeliad animals as part of a comparative study of island biogeography. Barbara was a professor at Napier University, Edinburgh, teaching ecology and animal behaviour, and still lives in Edinburgh, but is never happier than when she is studying invertebrates in Caribbean bromeliads and heliconias. Her work is funded by the US National Science Foundation through the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research program where she is a Principal Investigator, collaborating with staff at the University of Puerto Rico and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry. She is helped in the field, and in the maintenance of a large database, by her husband Mike, a retired plant pathologist. Together they have published papers on phytotelm ecology, and on the ecology of insects in forest floor litter, in leading journals. As part of the Sea & Learn Program Barbara will talk about biodiversity on Caribbean islands and demonstrate how she uses bromeliad microcosms to assess the biodiversity and functioning of these small ecosystems. Her presentation will illustrate some of her results and show photomicrographs of the normally ‘unseen’ small animals in these habitats.  

Plan to attend Barbara's presentation and go hiking with her Oct 13-20--exact dates and schedules to be announced soon on this site.

Sip Swierstra
studied electronics in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. After graduation Sip joined the Philips Research Labs in 1967 to develop technology leading to an automatic radar guided braking system for automobiles, the base technology for the traffic radar systems still in use by the police today. At the University of California, San Diego, USA, he designed and built a radio telescope system for the study of solar wind characteristics. In the mid seventies, Sip joined Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, viz. the European FAA. He was the technical lead for innovative research in Air Traffic Management. This work focuses on research leading to the development of advanced Aircraft Performance models and Aircraft Trajectory Prediction techniques. The application of this technology in automated Decision Support Tools for Air Traffic Controllers improves the safety and the efficiency of Air Navigation in general and, in addition, aims to minimize the impact of aircraft operations on the environment. The latter is a prerequisite for ensuring the sustainable growth of the industry as a whole.  In 2007 he retired from Eurocontrol and is now a resident of Saba. He continues working part time as a consultant to Boeing Research and Technology Center focusing on the worldwide integration of computers systems onboard aircraft with those supporting Air Traffic Control on the ground. Sip is also associated with the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, Department of Aerospace Engineering. 

Join Sip for an interesting presentation on yet another facet of our environment.  Dates and times will be late October.  Stay tuned for specific schedule. 

Kathleen Dudzinski
has been studying dolphin behavior and communication since 1990 with a focus on tactile, behavioral and acoustic signals employed by dolphins as they share information with each other and across groups. Dr. Dudzinski is Director of the Dolphin Communication Project (DCP) where she conducts research on three groups of dolphins in both captive and wild environments, and oversees research conducted by graduate students from five universities who collaborate with DCP.  She has adjunct status at the University of Southern Mississippi, Al;aska Pacific University and the University of Rhode Island.  Kathleen designed and built a new system for simultaneously recording the behavior and vocalizations of dolphins underwater . She and another colleague also engineered an echolocation click detector in addition to her original mobile recording system to capture and document information on dolphin echolocation signals.  Also through DCP, Dr. Dudzinski teaches a variety of classes, workshops and seminars at the secondary school and college levels.

Join Kathleen  October 8-15, 2008 for 3 different lectures:  She will be on dive boats during this time with the hope of spotting dolphins but also making recordings.

Dean "Sharkman" Fessler
is the Education Director for the Shark Research Institute and calls Princeton, New Jersey home when not traveling.  Dean has dived and researched shark species around the world including:  Sand tiger sharks off the North Carolina coasts, Bull sharks and Caribbean reef sharks off the Bahamas, Black tipped reef sharks off Palau and White sharks off South Africa and Guadeloupe Island.  He has worked with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and was recently elected in to the Explorer's Club.  In his spare time, he is authoring a children's book about white sharks. 
Join Dean for a special evening as he introduces the movie Shark Water at Tropics Cafe.  The feature film will be followed with an open forum to discuss the risks to sharks' existence worldwide and locally. 

Jeffrey A. George
is the Curator for Sea Turtle, Inc. based on South Padre Island, Texas.  The center rehabilitates injured sea turtles found on the south Texas coast.  Additionally they provide education about sea turtles and their marine environment and assist with conservation efforts in Texas and around the world by supporting sea turtle nesting programs.  He holds a B.S. degree in mathematics and is a retired steel industry executive.  Jeffrey began his work with sea turtles as a volunteer in 1992 and turtles quickly became his passion.  He has worked with veterinarians for the last 9 years in developing protocols for treatment and has successfully released over 400 rehabilitated turtles.  In 2008, he is part of a team attempting a prosthetic flipper for an Atlantic Green sea turtle with only one flipper.  Join Jeffrey as he provides a diver’s guide to identifying sea turtle species interesting and sea turtle rehabilitation stories. 

Stewart Chipka
is now a familiar face on Saba--commonly referred to as "The Orchid Guy".  Stewart began his interest in orchids as a child, inspired by his Czeh immigrant grandfather, a Miami orchid breeder.  Trained as a structural engineer his life long interest in orchids resulted in his pursuit of a Masters degree in Botany and continuing toward his PhD specializing in orchids.  He has worked extensively in orchid research in Belize, Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica and Cuba and publishes in orchid magazines and botanical journals.  His activities on Saba began in the winter of 2002 with the beginning of an island orchid survey that continues to this day.  He has also assisted in the survey by the New York Botanical Garden cataloging project on Saba for the past two years.  To date, he has catalogued 26 naturalized species of orchids, in six genera, for the island of Saba.  A founding member of and past president of Encyclia Enthusiasts, Inc., a specialists group of the American Orchid Society, he established the Saba Biological Research Foundation on Saba in 2006.  He is currently preparing a book on the Saba orchids as a result of his studies and field research.  Join Stewart on a hike as well as his intriguing presentation about Saba's orchid populations.
Presentations and field work will be in mid-to-late October; schedule out soon.

Roger Hanlon
has made over 5,000 research dives during his 30 years as a marine biologist. He was inspired first when an octopus on a coral reef in Panama scared him out of his wits during his junior year in college. He survived that experience - and an athletic scholarship - to receive a B.S. Degree in Biology at Florida State University. He then served as Lieutenant in the US Army for two years before obtaining the MS and PhD degrees from the University of Miami, and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK. Field work combined with laboratory experimentation has helped to satisfy his continuing curiosity about how cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus) survive and thrive in an ocean dominated by fishes and mammals. Along the way, he has been employed in academic research centers, first at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (where he achieved full professorship in the School of Medicine) and since 1995 at the nation’s oldest marine laboratory, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole on Cape Cod. Dr. Hanlon is a Senior Scientist in the Marine Resources Center at the MBL and still follows the mantra of Louis Agassiz, whose famous quote hangs in the library in Woods Hole: “Study nature, not books.” 2008 will mark Roger's 3rd trip to Saba.  He will soon publish a scientific paper on his work on the mimicing behavior of Saba's octopus.  Join Roger for a dive with cephalopods whether its as an armchair diver or in the ocean. 
Presentations and field work dates TBA
 

Tom van t'Hof
is a marine biologist recognized worldwide for his designing of marine parks. Tom is to be given credit for the design of Saba and St. Eustatius's (the more common name for our neighboring island St. Eustatius is "Statia") marine parks but also for Bonaire, Curacao and other parks from Kenya to Indonesia. Choosing Saba as his home since 1986, Tom was the original director of Saba's Conservation Foundation for its first ten years. As an active environmentalist, author and consultant, Tom is never at a loss for something to do. The Nature of Saba, Guide to the Saba Marine Park, and Guide to Saba's Nature Trails are just the books about Saba which Tom has written or co-authored.  He and artist wife Heleen own Saba's Eco-lodge Rendezvous. 
Throughout the month of October, join Tom on Wednesday nights @ The Ecolodge for his cloud forest presentation.

Rod Stewart
is a volcano-seismologist at the Seismic Research Centre, University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Recently, he has spent part of his time as Acting Director of Montserrat Volcano Observatory, monitoring the Soufriere Hills Volcano which has been erupting for the last thirteen years on the small Caribbean island of Montserrat. Rod, as he tends to be called, trained as a seismologist and then worked in such diverse areas as nuclear-explosion monitoring, geothermal energy and the oil industry. He was bitten by the volcano bug when he took a job at Rabaul Volcano Observatory in Papua New Guinea and witnessed a major eruption. Since then, Rod has worked on volcanoes in Japan, the Caribbean and the South Atlantic and has become well-respected in his field. He tried to give up volcanology for a while, but was tempted back to the subject and to the Caribbean in May last year. The Seismic Research Centre is responsible for monitoring volcanoes and earthquakes throughout the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean which allows Rod to indulge himself in what he now admits to be an obsession with volcanoes.
Be part of our Grand Finale evening and enjoys Rod's presentation on October 30, 2009 @ Tropics Cafe.

Kerry McDonald
has over 25 years experience in the development of geothermal energy  in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. UHe attended his doctorate program in resource Management at the Colorado School of Mines. McDonald is the developer and US patent holder of the extraction of zinc, silver, and other minerals from geothermal brines.  Presently, Kerry is the founder and CEO of West Indies Power Holdings B.V. (WIPH) which is developing the largest geothermal plant in the Caribbean. In 2010 the island nation of St Kitts and Nevis will obtain all of its energy from geothermal power and will be the country least dependent on fossil fuels in the world. WIPH is also developing geothermal plants on Saba, Dominica, and St Vincent.  Join Kerry on Saba to understand the process that will allow the geothermal power produced on these islands to be transported by submarine electrical transmission cables to their neighboring islands and how our environment can benefit from geothermal power.