About Peter Frederick
I became interested in the natural world through growing up in rural environments, having botanically minded parents, and helping my grandfather record bird song at an early age. My interest in wetlands began as a child on the Chesapeake Bay, and has continued through the lowcountry of the Carolinas, the salt marshes of Georgia, the Florida Everglades, Venezuelan Llanos, Nicaraguan Miskito Coast, and many other coastal and wetland environments. Following an undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College and postbac work at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, I finished a PhD program in Zoology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the animal behavior program. After post-docs at University of Florida and at National Audubon Society's Research Department, I pursued research at University of Florida in Departments of Zoology, and Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. My current appointment in WEC is 85% research, 15% teaching, and my duties include research in Florida and abroad, advising graduate students, undergraduate and graduate teaching, seeking extramural funds, public education, and production of reports and publications. Research duties include both field and lab studies focused on understanding the ecology of wetland vertebrates and their environment, with an aim towards better management, conservation, and restoration of wetland ecosystems. I currently co-teach a field course on ecosystem restoration in south Florida, occasionally teach an undergraduate course on wetlands ecology, and give lectures as standard parts of Wildlife of Florida, Conservation Biology, and Marine Biology. I am one of the faculty in the NSF-funded IGERT wetlands program at UF, and in the UF Water Institute, and the School of Natural Resources and Conservation.