David is originally from Arizona where he attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and received his B.S. in Environmental Science. After a few years working for private industry and the U.S. Forest Service, he received his M.S. in Soil, Water, and Environmental Science from the University of Arizona in Tucson. His research subject at the U. of A. was disinfection of waterborne microsporidia, in the lab of Charles P. Gerba. He moved to St. Petersburg in 2000 to complete his Ph.D. in Marine Science with Joan Rose at USF, and the topic of his dissertation was survival and transport of microorganisms in Florida ground water. He also assisted the Paul lab on research trips to the Gulf of Mexico in 2001 and the Long-term Environmental Observatory 15 site on the South Jersey coast.
Currently, David is conducting research on cyanobacteria genomics and phylogenetic studies on the ribulose-1,5,-carboxylase/oxygenase gene (rbcL). This is the key enzyme involved in carbon fixation of most all algae and plants, along with marine cyanobacteria. He is currently preparing for a return to the Mississippi River nutrient plume in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2005, where additional research on rbcL expression as it relates to spatial nutrient dynamics and phylogenetic groups will be performed.
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