Newts with Kannon Pearson September 2 2025 1pm Eastern RSVP here! Kannon Pearson is a 5th-year PhD student in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley. She studies poisonous newts that get their toxins from the bacteria living on their skin. The toxins protect the newts from predators like birds and snakes. When not splashing about in ponds, Kannon can be found drawing amphibians and participating in efforts to share science!
Whales with Eman Khwaja October 1, 2025 (date may change, tbd) 1pm Eastern RSVP here! Eman Khwaja is a marine biologist who turned a childhood love of the ocean into a career studying whales. She’s now a PhD candidate at UMass Dartmouth and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on how humpback whale behavior changes as they grow up in the waters around Massachusetts. Growing up in Boston, Eman spent countless hours at the New England Aquarium, where her curiosity about the ocean first began. Over the years, she’s studied a variety of ocean animals—from fiddler crabs and clownfish to giant clams and Amazonian river fish—but found her true passion in whales. Eman’s current work takes her both out to sea and into the lab, using data collected from whale watch vessels to better understand how whales behave and interact with their environment. She’s passionate about making science accessible and exciting, especially for future scientists. As a whale watch naturalist, she helps people of all ages learn about whales and the ocean, and she shares her love for marine life through videos online (Instagram/TikTok: @whale_detective), classroom visits, and public talks. When Eman isn't tracking whales on the water, you can find her playing with her cats or enjoying a good book.
Snails and Climate Change with Andy Lee December, date TBD. 1pm Eastern RSVP here
Andy Lee is a PhD candidate at Purdue University. Climate change poses challenges for many marine animals. To deal with changing conditions, some animals change where they live and others adapt in place. Using genetic data, Andy study how animals adapt to a changing ocean.
