The Nautilus Files

What a week at the in Charleston!!

The week didn't start off great with my Grammi dying on Sunday, but the RAW family was so supportive and awesome the entire week and really helped me through!

The next day, I kicked off the sessions bright and early with a talk at 9am along with some cool invert talks! Throughout the week, I connected with former students, ,, . Andy gave a terrific talk on micro fragmentation of corals in Hawaii. I watched current students give an awesome talk on a 2+ year project with sting rays.

Back in Des Moines, students volunteered at a booth during a talk at the and one of our junior lab managers provided the introductory remarks for the speaker that night!!!

I was also surprised with the news of "another" teaching award, 😄, but I'm not sure if I can post about it yet.... chatted with some long time friends, met some new ones, and learned so much from laser therapy in fish, putting the science back into aquariums, and how to connect with folks on a fishing pier to help sharks, to name a few.

And made some plans for exciting future work to support !!!!!

We came to Fiji. We set some traps. We found our buoys. Weare some corn on the side of the road! We counted some nautiluses!!!

And then 37 students from Iowa showed up.

To be continued.

Fiji mangrove nautilus piece done!!! Thanks to Nick Ziemann !

Nice gift to myself to finish this piece after returning from another Fiji research expedition. Based upon a mangrove tree I've seen in Fiji sort of off on its own. Maybe one day I'll actually find a nautilus drift shell there!

Fun launch party for the book, Amazing Iowa Scientists!!!

Read my portion aloud. Signed some books. And met some other cool scientists, fantastic artists, and folks in the community!

Central Campus Marine Sciences

Bula from Fiji!

Morning coffee before my morning run before going to pull up first traps that were set yesterday before driving back to Nadi to meet my 37 students tomorrow morning!

Back to Fiji with another 37 students for nautilus research and lots of new experiences...!!! Students fly out on Saturday. I'm headed there early to get things organized.

Still such a surreal experience. While 37 students will be in Fiji, the majority of the students in the Aquarium Science and Marine Biology programs are staying in Iowa, caring for the lab, and are really the secret to these field studies expeditions being successful.

Been a busy, busy, and fun summer!!!

Just got back from Phoenix two days ago. Today, i had an important meeting this morning in Des Moines (hopefully I can share GOODS NEWS later about that....) and now flying to Portland for another marine educators conference to talk up program and the connection to !!!

In Lafayette, LA, at the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference, giving a presentation on a chapter I was invited to write describing our Marine Biology Program curriculum and connections to research and nautiluses!

The book comes out soon... and it's OPEN ACCESS!

Dr. Gregory Barord - Marine Sciences Program at Central Campus - will share highlights from his recent Fiji Expedition and the important work being done to protect nautiluses and other deep-sea creatures in the Pacific Ocean. Don’t miss this chance to explore the wonders of our oceans and the efforts to preserve them for the future! Learn more: https://www.wdmlibrary.org/event/hold-jen-evening-program-110045

ONE OF THE BEST NAUTILUS DAYS EVER!!!!!

So great to meet dozens of nautilus hatchlings and a five year old female nautilus who hatched here!!! The team here has been doing great work on nautilus reproduction for years and continues pushing beyond what we think is possible. From the main exhibits to the back areas, every step was thought out precisely and intentionally!

Appreciate them spending the time to walk me through their facilities and reproductionsetups, and even helping to feed a couple hatchlings!!!

Looking forward to future work and collaboration as we learn more about the secret life of nautiluses!!

Settled in on Sunday evening in Brisbane with a nice sunset and practiced the talk a few times. Woke up Monday morning for an easy 5k run. Practiced talk a few more times and headed to the conference.

Talk went well! Actually, the audience was loudly "ooed and awed" on one of my slides, which is awesome, but caught me off guard, 😄. Asked them to also count how many nautiluses were in this tub on a boat, and no one could... 😄 The other talks in my session were also pretty informative, and I learned a lot of new things!