Aquarium Video Presentations

James B. Wood, PhD is the Aquarium of the Pacific’s director of education. He has published numerous peer-reviewed and popular papers on cephalopod behavior, life history, physiology, and husbandry. Dr.Woods is webmaster of The Cephalopod Page, one of the longest running biological web sites and is a founding executive member and board member for MarineBio.org. He has worked with the Census of Marine Life since 1998 and co-developed one of their pilot species databases–CephBase.

Dr. Alex Hearn studied Oceanography and Marine Biology at Southampton University in the UK, and did his PhD at Heriot Watt University in the Orkney Islands. In 2002, he moved to the Galapagos Islands and worked as coordinator of fisheries research at the Charles Darwin Foundation. Hearn developed the Galapagos Shark Research and Conservation Program in 2006. He is currently working as a postdoctoral scholar at the Biotelemetry Laboratory of UC Davis.

Dr. Jeffrey Graham is a research physiologist and senior lecturer at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. His research has expanded from studies on the physiological and biological perspectives of sharks to include shark ecology and habitat research. In 2006, the Southern California Bight Elasmobranch Consortium was created and headquartered in his laboratory. Dr. Graham holds a PhD from the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Dr. Gregor Cailliet received a doctorate in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972. That same year, he became a faculty member at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and has been there ever since. Dr. Cailliet presently serves as the Program Director of the Pacific Shark Research Center. He has served as an advisor to 100 masters students in the field of marine fish ecology and has also been very active in central California reserves or sanctuaries.

Chris Lowe has been studying sharks for over 20 years and currently runs the Shark Lab at CSULB where he was recently awarded Professor of the Year. Dr. Lowe’s research interests include the physiological and behavioral ecology of elasmobranchs and other gamefishes, as well as the role of marine refuges in fisheries conservation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marine biology at Barrington College. He went on to get his masters in biology at CSULB. And he holds a PhD in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is pleased to announce Brent Maxwell Ward as its 10th Anniversary Scholar in May for his efforts in marine science and conservation. Ward has shown a strong interest in marine biology and conservation. He studied ocean life and the tides during the summer in a NAACP sailing program. There, he learned to work with shipmates of all backgrounds. He has also volunteered at beach clean-ups at Colorado Lagoon. His interest in water extends to his participation in water polo and on the swim team. Maxwell wishes to study biology in college, and become an anesthesiologist.

Jesse Ausubel is a Program Director for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University in New York City. During the past decade he helped launch and lead three major international scientific programs in biodiversity science: the Census of Marine Life, the Barcode of Life Initiative, and the Encyclopedia of Life. Ausubel was a main organizer of the first UN World Climate Conference (Geneva, 1979), which substantially elevated global warming on scientific and political agendas.

Daniel Botkin is a scientist who studies life from a planetary perspective. He writes about nature, and is one of the world’s leading researchers who has helped solve major environmental issues. Dr. Botkin is a research professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara and president of The Center for the Study of the Environment. For 39 years, as a Ph. D. ecologist, Botkin has tried to understand life on the Earth. He has studied moose in the far north, elephants in Africa, bowhead whales in the northern ocean, and forests in North and Central America. Botkin has worked as a professional journalist and has degrees in physics, biology, and literature.

Richard Ellis is one of America's leading marine conservationists, and is generally recognized as the foremost painter of marine natural history subjects in the world. His paintings of whales and sharks have appeared in Audubon, National Wildlife, Australian Geographic, the Encyclopedia Britannica,Sports Afield, and Reader's Digest among many others. In addition to painting, Mr. Ellis is the author of more than eighty magazine articles. In 2008, he published Tuna: A Love Story, and in 2009, On Thin Ice: The Polar Bear and Global Warming. His books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Korean. He is currently serving as co-curator of Mythic Creatures for the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

For more than three decades, Peter Howorth has been involved in numerous nonprofit environmental organizations. He was president of the Santa Barbara Underseas Foundation, an organization devoted to education, conservation, and research involving the sea. He was a founding director and president of the Friends of Channel Islands National Park. Howorth has also been involved in numerous research projects with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. He has the distinction of being their first staff associate. Since 1975, Howorth has been a member of the Shark Research Committee, which studies shark attacks on humans worldwide. Howorth's work with marine mammals earned him both state and federal Senatorial Commendations. His work has been featured in numerous television documentaries, ranging from Cousteau's "Rediscovery of the World" to Tom Brokaw's Nightly News.