Introduction

I'm Phil Coppola, a graduate student in the Department of Biology at University of West Florida (Pensacola, FL).

I hail from the Pacific Northwest, originally Vancouver, WA.  In 2012, I received my BS in biology & minor in chemistry from Western Washington University.  My focus of study was ecology, evolution, and organismal biology.  Soon after graduating, I moved to Gautier, MS and worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge as a wildlife biology intern.  There I was responsible for monitoring, capturing, and banding many of the approximately one-hundred remaining wild Mississippi sandhill cranes.  I then went up to Brooksville, MS and climbed trees (and got paid) at the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, again as an intern for USFWS. [While up in the trees, I was pulling and banding red-cockaded woodpecker nestlings.] This past summer, I did some research on lizards and helped assist my past professor/mentor lead a course in Ecological Methods in the high desert scrub (Alvord Basin, OR).  Then, in late August, I began my graduate studies here at UWF. 

A few hobbies include:

Bird watching

Gardening - member of botanical society at UWF and help maintain two beds in the community garden

Hiking, camping, and infrequent hunting/fishing

Listening to music

Learning new stuff (like GIS)

I look forward to getting to know everyone better as the course rolls on... :)