Department of Biology, University of Utah

phone number: 1-801-581-5927

fax number: 1-801-581-4665

Education

B.A., 1985, Biology, Earlham College

M.S., 2000, Natural Resource Planning, University of Vermont

Publications

Hurley JM, Ginger C, Capen DE. 2002. Property concepts, ecological thought, and ecosystem management: A case of conservation policy making in Vermont. Society & Natural Resources 15 (4): 295-312. (pdf)

Work History

Although there have been other jobs (zookeeper, carpenter, mail carrier, bookseller, town planner) my interest is biological research. After college I embarked on a string of research positions beginning at the Manomet Bird Observatory where, among other things, I conducted shipboard censes of marine bird, mammal, and turtle populations. Eventually I ended up in Vermont working at the medical school dissecting the indirect flight muscles from fruit flies for studies on the molecular basis of muscle contraction. After a fabulous stint in the Entomology Department at the University of Hawaii (where I conducted field studies on the ecology of insect pests in Macadamia and Coffee on the Big Island), I returned to Vermont and entered the Natural Resource Planning Program. While a graduate student, I developed GIS skills, which I carried with me into a brief planning career. After moving to Salt Lake City, and not happy in just the world of people, I took seasonal work with the Utah Department of Natural Resources conducting brine shrimp surveys on the Great Salt Lake. Somehow this all led me to the Ehleringer Lab where I am currently analyzing marijuana for stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, strontium, and perhaps sulfur. Thus the rather unlikely title (for me) of Analytical Chemist.