Will splits time between our lab and a lab you could arguably call “the place where he’s actually a postdoctoral researcher,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Will studies collective behavior, migratory patterns, the ways animals produce and use information, and the ways that information may be socially available – for example, if whales “see” by listening to the reverberations of their echolocating clicks, but can hear eachother’s echolocating clicks, in a way they can see what eachother are seeing.

Will previously completed his PhD in Biology at Stanford University, MSc and BSc degrees in Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, and held research and policy positions with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Natural Resources Defense Council, respectively. He will soon be expanding his research program as a group leader at the University of Zürich, in the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies.

Outside of his academic work, you can catch Will waking up in the literal middle of the night and driving 5 hours to the Olympic coast to go surfing, driving to Vancouver Island for the weekend to go surfing, or next year, riding the train 9 hours from Zürich to the southern coast of France to go surfing.