Dave Blackburn is a post-doctoral research associate in the Division of Herpetology at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. His research focuses on the evolution of diversity in living amphibians as well as the history of Africa's biodiversity. Dave completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University where he conducted his research in the laboratory of his main advisor, Dr. James Hanken. Dave first became interested in Africa when he joined Dr. Paul Sereno's expedition to Niger in 2000. Since then, Dave's conducted field research in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa (including Malawi, Cameroon, and Nigeria) and has developed broad interests in the history of Africa.

Dave Blackburn's website

Read an interview with Dave on the Dinosaur Expedition 2000 web site

The Cameroon 2006 Expedition Team

Katie Blackburn
Birthday: April 6, 1979
Hobbies: Cooking, reading, hiking
As a kid I liked: playing with her cats, playing in the yard with her sister, reading, and going to school.

Katie is currently finishing up her Masters of Science at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Her academic focus is on nutrition and poverty.

While Katie has done her fair share of traveling, including a recent month-long trip to Bangladesh, this is her first trip to Africa. She likely knows more about amphibians than anyone else at the public health school! Katie and Dave are resident tutors and advisors to undergraduates in Harvard’s Dunster House.

Divine Fotibu

Divine is the driver for the team, but he is also a great mechanic and cook. Divine lives in Yaoundé where he is usually a driver for a local conservation organization, but he hails from near the town of Bamenda in Cameroon’s Northwest province. Dave met Divine while working in Cameroon in 2004. Divine speaks multiple languages and his driving and mechanic skills are extremely important to the success of our fieldwork!

Nono Gonwouo

Nono is a local expert on Cameroonian reptiles and received his master’s degree in herpetology from the University of Yaoundé several years ago. Dave worked with Nono during previous fieldwork in Cameroon. Nono has traveled widely in Cameroon and is skilled at navigating politics at both the national and village level. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. on Cameroonian amphibians with Dr. Marc-Oliver Rödel from the University of Wurzburg in Germany. He has just recently returned to Cameroon from California where he was taking courses on global information systems (GIS).

Pien Huang
Birthday: April 02, 1984
Hobbies: reading, writing, rock-climbing As a kid I liked: decorating with glitter, playing in water, and beating the Oregon Trail

Pien graduated from college in June, and she will spend a year traveling with, and writing about, scientists. Pien is short, and is often mistaken for being twelve when she is, in fact, twenty-two. She prefers to be outdoors, and worries sometimes about deep and bottomless waters. She loves trying different foods and meeting new people, and recommends that you pay attention in Geography.

Marcel Talla

Marcel is a teacher at a secondary school in Douala, Cameroon. He has conducted field surveys for reptiles in many parts of Camerooon as part of the CAMHERP project. He will be joining us for many of our trips into the field.