Picture this: On a remote island in the Pacific, a team of researchers are among iguanas and penguins at a camp on the equator. They spent the day hacking through the underbrush and flipping rocks and logs to get a look at the dirt underneath. Every now and then we hear sounds of joy about what they discover, and their pure excitement is palpable.
These are snail hunters. These three cryptozoologists are on the hunt to gain insights into the evolution of life on Earth, and at the same time find new ways to communicate those discoveries to students. The island is the Galapagos; the expedition is a collaboration of scholars and a labor of love; and the research will describe rules of biodiversity that govern how new species form and coexist with one another. The project has far-reaching implications for science, and U of I is leading the discovery. It’s a big deal.
Meet the Snail Hunters, renown researchers at U of I who are sharing a one-of-a-kind perspective on their research and sharing their love of scientific discovery.
Luke Harmon
Luke Harmon is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho College of Science. His research involves reconstructing and interpreting the tree of life, the branching relationships that trace all living things back to a common ancestor. He gives interesting workshops and talks with titles such as “Why is life on Earth so boring?” and has published influential research papers (think mathematical equations and statistics) in his pursuit for answers. His work is accessible and his students benefit from his first hand experiences and stories he weaves into his lectures. He is also a very likeable guy.
Christine Parent
Christine Parent is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho College of Science. Christine is known in the Galápagos Islands as the “caracolera”—the “snail hunter.” With 20 years of research on Galápagos snails, Christine has discovered and described the most diverse group of species in an island system famous for evolution- snails. When not in the field capturing elusive and undiscovered snails of all sorts, Christine supports a large group of student collaborators in research and education in the Parent Lab at University of Idaho, and wears her title as The Caracolera with pride.
Brant Miller
Brant Miller is a professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences at the University of Idaho. Prior to his current position and graduate work, he was an eighth-grade science teacher in western South Dakota. Brant likes to get out of the classroom and he thinks most students like that, too. His work explores how local and remote contexts support students and teachers as they discover our world through the lens of sustainability. He’s led education and outreach initiatives in the Galápagos Islands, the Arctic, Chile, and throughout the United States, and he takes the information back to his U of I students and teaches them how to use adventure learning to teach science.
