Distinguished Research Professor, Odum School of Ecology
Involved in five collaborative NSF grants
B.S. in botany, M.S. in resource ecology, Ph.D. in aquatic biology, University of Michigan
Photo by: Andrew Davis Tucker

I played with tadpoles and frogs. I loved being outdoors so here now at 54 years old I'm still knee deep, or neck deep, in water. People think it's real glamorous to work in the tropics. I think they envision a piña colada and a hammock. We're always wet ande covered in mud, not smelling so great. It's so hot down there. A lot of times you have to wear snake gaiters. If you can immerse yourself in the water it's not so bad.

—Catherine Pringle on her childhood interests and her career now as a freshwater ecologist and conservation biologist with projects in Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, North Carolina, and Georgia.