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June 21, 2005
Brown Encounter
About a week and a half ago, I was walking down the street 6 de Diciembre, which I walk along everyday to and from work. Who did I run into? Jon Witman, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown. I took his class two years ago, and I’m not sure he remembered me, but it was just so random that it was funny. I find the world to be so much smaller in Ecuador even than in my established communities in the US, and I keep making random connections all the time. Maybe I just value these connections more because I’m so far away from home and university.
Apparently Professor Witman jetted out of Providence as soon as classes ended to pursue his research on intertidal zone ecology in the Galapagos, which necessitates engaging his passion for SCUBA diving. He has 12 sites on various islands and spends a few hours every day diving and collecting samples and then chilling in the Galapagos, going back to Puerto Ayora every few days to do lab work on the samples. He referred to the Galapagos as his “home away from home,” and was a little bit sad that he was returning to the US the next day. He also said he admitted his Galapagos lab assistant into Brown as a grad student in his department, which he was quite excited about (even admitting that maybe working with her all year would finally help him learn Spanish). I’m supremely jealous. I would love to make the Galapagos my second home.
Posted by Lee Gilman at June 21, 2005 11:19 AM
