Castaway

Alex Dornburg
I am the Curator of Fishes at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. My research program takes an integrative approach to explore the factors that underlie the origin and maintenance of vertebrate biodiversity, with an emphasis on the study of ray-finned fishes. Fishes comprise over half of all living vertebrate species—a better understanding of their history will shed light onto long standing questions in biology that have relevance to both conservation and human health including how species persist and recover from rapid environmental change. In my experience, research programs addressing environmental change are often faced with a lack of historic species data with which to contextualize emerging trends of species occurrence or loss. Through the Castaway project, we can work together to fill this data gap for a critical part of the United States, thereby empowering more accurate forecasts of how marine species diversity will change over the next century.

Gabriela M. Hogue
I am the Collections Manager of Fishes for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and oversee the curation of the museum’s research collection of fishes (ca. 1.4 million specimens). The most rewarding part of my job is making the specimens and all accompanying data globally accessible. I truly believe that it is through this accessibility that we can unleash their potential for research, conservation, and education.

Janet Edgerton
I am the Head Librarian at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and I enjoy tracking down information to support the research, outreach, and teaching activities of the Museum’s researchers and staff. It’s rewarding to see a scientific paper get published when I helped in getting background literature for the author(s). The challenge of locating hard-to-find information keeps my job interesting, and I learn something new every day. I especially enjoy occasional chances to go in the field with researchers; I love to be outside!

Zion Creech
I am currently a technician with the Ichthyology Unit of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. I recently graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology.

Katie Morrison
I am currently the Archives Intern with the Brimley Research Library and Ichthyology unit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. I am in my first year of my Master’s degree program in Library and Information Science at UNC-Chapel Hill and am also a UNC alumni with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. As a Cary native I grew up going to (and loving) the NCMNS, and am psyched that we can work with you all on this project to save a wealth of valuable data!

April Lamb
I am currently a project manager with the Ichthyology Unit of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Prior to this position, I obtained my Masters degree in Biology and certification in Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) at North Carolina State University. Research-wise, I am interested in better understanding the processes that influence biodiversity and ecosystem function. Historical datasets, like those you'll encounter in the Castaway project, are especially useful for biodiversity research as they can help tell us how ecosystems and species distributions have changed over time. I am excited to work with you on digitizing this valuable data!