Online exhibits : Special exhibits : Secrets of the Stomatopod

Secrets of the Stomatopod: An Underwater Research Adventure

How did they get here?

Team photo

Roy Caldwell (center, back row) and the rest of the research team have different skills and interests, and came together on this mission by following different paths. There are many areas of biology where scientists are making new discoveries, and there are many questions still unanswered. Science is always building on what was learned before, by establishing new hypotheses. Often, new hypotheses are developed after a chance observation, and because of this, scientists must be open to novel observations.

Back row, from left: Tom Cronin is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and studies adaptations of visual systems to natural environments. Nerina Holden graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, with a Master's in Marine Resources and now works for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. She has dived around the world with Roy and Tom for nearly a decade. Roy Caldwell, the principal investigator, is Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley and has studied the behavioral ecology of stomatopods since 1965. Pam Jutte is a marine scientist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and studied stomatopods in graduate school with Roy. Mark Erdmann also studied stomatopods at Berkeley with Roy, and now works to protect Indonesia's coral reefs.

Front row, from left: Alex Cheroske is a doctoral student of Tom Cronin's studying the visual ecology of stomatopods, including polarized signaling. Karla Heidelberg is a research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and studies coral and jellyfish feeding ecology. On this mission she evaluated zooplankton abundance, including that of larval stomatopods. Helen Fox is one of Roy's current graduate students and studies coral reefs damaged by bomb fishing in Indonesia.

Read more detailed stories about the research team in the Aquarius mission archives!