Associate Professor in Biology
Sci.Ple: What is your background?
I got hooked into research as an undergraduate with I made a passing comment to Jennifer Mather (University of Lethbridge) about her octopus research, and she shanghaid me.
I moved to crustacean research with my Ph.D. with Dorothy Paul at the University of Victoria, and continued with invertebrates with Gerald Pollack at McGill, then David Macmillan at the University of Melbourne.
I got a gig at The University of Texas-Pan American in the tropical Rio Grande Valley in Texas in 2001, where I’ve remained since.
Sci.Ple: Among your published papers, which one is your favorite?
I have a soft spot for my paper on the loss of escape neurons in slipper lobsters (Faulkes Z. 2004. Loss of escape responses and giant neurons in the tailflipping circuits of slipper lobsters, Ibacus spp. (Decapoda, Palinura, Scyllaridae). Arthropod Structure & Development 33(2): 113-123. DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2003.12.003).
Sci.Ple: Why is it your favorite?
First, because slipper lobsters are cool. they look like prehistoric tanks – very armored, hunkered down kinds of beasts). Second, it came about from a chance observation. It was completely unplanned and expected. Third, it’s my first paper as solo author.
Sci.Ple: What was the most challenging part of this paper?
There’s a saying a lot of scientists have heard: “Absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.” I was trying to show the absence of neurons. I had an uphill battle to convince reviewer and editors that sometimes, absence of evidence IS evidence of absence.
Sci.Ple: What drives you in your day-to-day job?
That there are puzzles in front of me that I know can be solved, even if I don’t have the time, ability or equipment to solve them myself. And knowing that I can do better. Constant improvement is the samurai way.
Sci.Ple: What is the most exciting part of your job?
Getting papers by students, particularly undergraduates, accepted and published. Student make sure you never get blasé about publishing a paper, because that first paper is SUCH a big deal for them!
Sci.Ple: The least exciting?
Dealing with money, followed by routine questions about evaluations and grading for classes I’m teaching.
Sci.Ple: Name a scientist whose research inspires you.
My doctoral work was on sand crabs, which is an obscure group of digging crustaceans. After I finished my doctorate, Chris Boyko published his doctoral work revising the taxonomy of the sand crabs (Boyko CB. 2002. Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 272: 1-396). His monograph is goddamn artwork. It compiles so much information and is so thorough… it’s just an amazing piece of scholarship.
Sci.Ple: What are the next frontiers in neuroscience?
Ask me again after I get back from Neuroscience 2011!
The next frontiers of neuroscience may not be scientific, but ethical and social. We’re running into questions about how scientific findings should inform legal decisions, and the disconnect between how scientists think about the causes of behaviour does not always sit well with how people who are not scientists think about the causes of behavior.
Sci.Ple: Why science?
I like universities, and while getting a university gig was tough, the stability appealed to me. Universities have half-lives of centuries; businesses turn over in years.
Sci.Ple: If not science?
Maybe publishing, because I like to write, or graphic design, which I seem to have a knack for.
Sci.Ple: Why?… just ask a random question!
Why can’t I get this new phone to connect to my university’s wifi?!
