Autobiography of Mike Swift
I grew up in northern California skiing, backpacking and fishing. An undergraduate
limnology class at Univ. California, Davis led me to an MA at UCD, four months on a
research vessel in the Pacific, a Ph.D. at Univ. British Columbia, and a post-doc in
Saskatchewan. In following my interests in aquatic biology, I have sampled in the open
ocean, large rivers, headwater streams, lakes, ponds, and saline, meromictic lakes. I
have studied zooplankton behavior (predation and diel vertical migration), zooplankton
physiology (energetics, photobehavior), zooplankton ecology (population dynamics,
growth, production), aquatic toxicology (selenium, the pesticides Dimilin and Atrazine),
fish biology (energetics, growth, photobehavior), and stream ecology. I love teaching
and have practiced my craft at large universities, smaller colleges, and at several field
stations. At St. Olaf I have taught invertebrate zoology, organismic biology (intro),
environmental studies, plagues and pestilence, water resource management, and
human biology, and I am a co-advisor to the Biology in South India Program. I have
taught large and small classes, including five times at the Wilderness Field Station. My
most recent field-oriented teaching was in our Environmental Science in Australia
Program during spring semester, 2006. The WFS provides an ideal place to learn
theoretical and "hands-on" aquatic ecology because of the wide variety of aquatic
habitats available nearby and because the unique WFS course format provides the
opportunity for total immersion in the subject. I have enjoyed my WFS classes
immensely. Come join me in an in depth examination of water in the lakes, streams,
and forests of Superior National Forest and the BWCAW.