Meet the team

Professor Mahmood Shivji

Center Director

Mahmood is professor of marine science at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center in Florida and a director of the SOSF SRC. He received his undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada, his MSc from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his PhD from the University of Washington. He has been a faculty member at Nova Southeastern University since 1993 and a director of the SOSF SRC since 2010.

Mahmood credits his life-long fascination with biology to growing up in Kenya, where he was routinely exposed to African wildlife and undersea environments as a child and teenager. His interest in marine science in particular was boosted when as an undergraduate student he assisted one of his professors with kelp-bed ecology research in a pristine part of British Columbia. That experience proved transformative, leading to a career in marine and conservation science and education.

In addition to leading the research and education programmes of the SOSF SRC, Mahmood directs the Guy Harvey Research Institute, emphasising collaborative projects between the two entities to achieve larger and more impactful research and conservation outcomes. He specialises in integrating laboratory genetics-based and field-work approaches to study and solve problems pertaining to the management and conservation of sharks and rays, billfishes and coral reef ecosystems.

Mahmood’s work is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum’s Sant Ocean Hall in Washington DC, and his team’s research discoveries are frequently and widely reported in the national and international media.

Dr Matthew Johnston

Associate Professor

Matt grew up in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, where he spent his childhood fishing, camping, and enjoying all that the woods offer. Coming from a family of fishers and hunters, he spent a lot of time at mountain lakes and brooks and was often distracted by catching frogs, snakes, and minnows in the marshes when he should have been monitoring a fishing pole. His childhood dream to study the ocean and its inhabitants came from visits to a small roadside tourist attraction called ‘Marine Life Aquarium’, as well as from the home marine aquariums he attempted to maintain as a child.

Matt earned an undergraduate degree in information systems but changed career paths later in life to earn his PhD in marine biology and oceanography at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). Currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at NSU, he teaches various graduate and undergraduate courses, many of which focus on the integration of science and technology. He is also a researcher at the SOSF Shark Research Center, where his work involves computational biology as applied to investigating shark movement ecology and connectivity patterns of broadcast spawning marine species.

Matt lives on a small hobby farm in the country, raising chickens, parrots, and poodles. He also enjoys collecting fossils, many of which are relics of North America’s Western Interior Seaway.

Dr. Andrea Bernard

Research Scientist

Andrea grew up in Toronto, Canada, and spent many hours sailing on Lake Ontario. From a very young age, she has loved watery environments, dipping her toes into Ontario’s Muskoka lakes, Florida’s coastal waters, and even a neighbourhood pool. As a high school student, she travelled to Canada’s east coast and studied the great tides of the Bay of Fundy as part of a summer marine biology course, cementing her future career path to the study of aquatic science.

Andrea subsequently earned a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Guelph, Canada, studying marine and freshwater biology, and after graduating she interned at both the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Great Lakes Laboratory located in Burlington, Ontario, where she studied everything from algae to fish habitat, and at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida, where she came face to face with a shark for the first time – and never forgot the experience! She then returned to university and completed a Master’s degree at the University of Guelph, investigating the population genetics of lake whitefish, followed by a doctorate at Nova Southeastern University (NSU), where she studied the population genetics of sharks, stingrays, and billfishes. She is currently an associate research scientist at NSU and the SOSF Shark Research Center, where she investigates the population dynamics of mainly sharks, with an emphasis on genetics and genomics-based ecology and conservation.

Dr Jeremy Vaudo

Research Scientist

Jeremy grew up in coastal southern California exploring tidal pools and taking classes and volunteering at the local aquarium, so the decision to pursue marine biology was made at a very early age. After studying biology for his Bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he entered the shark research world while earning his MS at California State University, Long Beach, studying the movement patterns of round stingrays. During his PhD at Florida International University he continued his work on rays, investigating the habitat use and foraging ecology of a ray community in Shark Bay, Australia. Since joining Nova Southeastern University as a research scientist in 2013, Jeremy has applied his quantitative ecology skills to the open ocean, studying the movements and habitat use of large pelagic fishes, particularly sharks.

Geoffrey Walker

Research Associate

A research associate and genetics lab manager at the SOSF SRC, Geoffrey grew up in Houston, Texas. His fascination with genetics began when he learned about genetic engineering in high school biology, which inspired him to pursue a BS in genetics at Purdue University. During his undergraduate studies he had the opportunity to study abroad in New Zealand, where he took a marine biology class that rekindled his childhood passion for marine life. This pivotal experience led him to shift his career focus from molecular genetics to fisheries genetics.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Geoffrey pursued a Master’s in fisheries science at Oregon State University, where he conducted thesis research on the population genetic structure and genetic connectivity of albacore tuna in the Pacific Ocean. Alongside a graduate minor in biological data sciences, this experience cemented his research focus on the genetics and genomics of highly migratory marine species. His work at the SOSF SRC now allows him to blend his skills in genetics with his love for marine life, contributing to critical research and conservation efforts.

When he’s not in the lab, Geoffrey enjoys hiking, kayaking, snorkelling, cheering on Purdue basketball and football, and playing pick-up sports and video games.