I have been maintaining ecosystems as a hobby for more than 15 years. The two areas I focus on are saltwater coral reefs and tropical vivariums. My driving passion is to create self-sustaining systems in captivity by utilizing the biological processes and relationships which occur in nature. In reef tanks I use refugia populated with sea grasses, a deep sand bed, and other mutualistic organisms to export wastes that are commonly removed by water changes and protein skimming filtration. In vivaria I use clay to produce a substrate that can withstand a high humidity environment without decomposing and have sufficient refuge for arthropod populations. I participate in furthering the hobby whenever possible; founding the Long Island Reef Association in 2000, and serving as Director of the Amphibian Steward Network from 2008 to 2011.
Introduction
Background
B.A. Degree in Anthropology,
minors in Psychology and Philosophy.
CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY
Statement
Technology empowers people. By utilizing technology engineered by people, and living technologies produced by evolution, we can create efficient tools to solve targeted problems.
Experience
In 2008 I was given the opportunity to join a vertical gardening startup and refine their living wall prototype. Minimalist design, efficient functionality and sustainable operation were my goals. I refined the design into a modular unit which was later molded using recycled polyethylene. An active air purification system was integrated to give the unit a competitive advantage over other living walls which primarily use a passive system of simply purifying air in the vicinity of the plants. A timed irrigation system was used to water the plants and in some applications live fish were kept in the water reservoir to aid in plant fertilization (aquaponic systems). More information about the product can be found at EcoWalls.
My focus in web development is user-centered design. All websites are designed to be viewed and/or used by a person (user). When that person visits a website, many factors are at play which influence their experience and how usable the site is to them. The user interface design and information architecture should consider how the information is layed out on the page and how the user navigates through the site to find what they want (use cases). At the same time, each user has been conditioned differently by their generation, social norms, and cultural memes. Both the user's preferences and the website's design alter the user's perception of the website. I develop websites using the open source content management system called Drupal. My experience in web development has been as a freelancer, as part of start-up companies, and full time at a marketing agency.
As a member of the Amphibian Steward Network, I was given perspective on the need to manage species in captivity for hobbyists. As inbreeding depression occurs in captive animal populations, there is an additional factor driving hobbyists to seek newly imported animals from the wild. Managing captive populations where the genetic integrity is maintained to conserve wild-type allele frequencies, would provide a captive repository of animals representative of wild animal populations which can be a sustainable source rather than removing animals from the wild. The ASN's practices for genetic management are based off papers outlining conservation genetics published by Bob Lacey.