Sanibel Seashells Podcast: Meet the Scientist

Meet Dr. José H. Leal, the scientist featured in our Sanibel Seashells podcast:

Where do you work?

I am the Director/Curator at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, USA.

What do you study?

My field of research is systematics of marine mollusks.

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Marine Biologist, Systematist, Museum Administrator.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

Most of all, I direct the Shell Museum on Sanibel. A little of my current time is devoted to research, and my free time spent listening to all kinds of music, reading, or stand-up paddle boarding or surfing. With my fiancée Kim Nealon, I take my vacations back in my home town of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

What do you like most about science?

First the exploratory side of doing systematics, second, the feeling that I am somehow contributing to the knowledge of what kinds of living things are out there in the ocean, and, third, the reassuring realization that I work with the coolest group of animals on the planet, the mollusks!