Barbara Kirkpatrick

Personal Interests

My Research Interests	My interests are to understand how the health of our oceans and lakes impact our health. I believe this will become an even more important issue as we continue to populate our coastlines- and our planet. An emerging concern worldwide is the demand for safe nontoxic drinking water- already a serious problem is some parts of the world.
My Teaching Interests	I enjoy seeing the spark in a student’s eye when a concept or string of separate thoughts comes together and form story- and I enjoy that process regardless if the student is pre-K-12 or a senior citizen. Understanding the connection we have to our environment is key to taking care of our planet.
My Hobbies	My husband and I love to cook together and we enjoy having folks over to share the food we make. I’m an avid reader (the Jack Reacher series by Lee Childs is my current passion). If I am out in our yard you will probably find me with a pair of pruning sheers taking care our landscaping (and living in Florida that is no easy task).

Full Name	Barbara Kirkpatrick
Position	Senior Scientist
Profession	Scientist/Researcher/Engineer
Affiliation	Mote Marine Laboratory
Affiliation Type	Research Lab/Industry
Professional Bio	I am a senior scientist at a non-profit marine laboratory. Unlike many other scientists connected to this site I don’t work on a marine or freshwater organism! I work on the health effects marine or freshwater organisms have on people. So really I am a public health scientist working at a marine lab. Our work is 100% funded through grants- so I write a lot of them! I work with a terrific group of scientists and we are very interdisciplinary. So its cool to learn about someone else’s area of specialty and see the crossovers to my own areas of interest. Solving the tough issues our environment faces will take teamwork. I have a strong passion to convey to the public all the important science that is being conducting and hope that my participation in the COSEE will assist in that information transfer.