Associate Professor in the Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

I am currently researching the sponges of the North Pacific, and I add useful information to iNat when I can. Some sponges can be identified from field photos, especially if they are underwater and relaxed, but many sponges can't be identified to species without a microscope (sometimes you even need DNA sequences!).

You can see a list of newly named sponges we have recently described here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/4415633-Californias-Newest-Sponges