I'm the director of the Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center (https://deepcanyon.ucnrs.org), one of the reserves within the University of California Natural Reserve System. My research background is in physiological ecology of reptiles and amphibians, although I am generally interested in natural history of deserts and other arid systems worldwide. I have had the privilege of studying animals in several deserts of North America, as well as in the Negev Desert of Israel, tropical northern Australia, northern Europe, and the Namib Desert in Namibia.