australia_beach_garfield_croppedVisiting Postdoctoral Researcher | gkwan@ucsd.edu

Garfield is originally from Hong Kong, and immigrated to Los Angeles at 8 years old. He is a first-generation undergraduate and graduate student, and completed his BS, MS, and PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography within the University of California, San Diego. Garfield’s completed his PhD with Martin Tresguerres (SIO) in 2020. During his PhD, he studied the ionocytes in the skin, gill, and inner ear of teleost fishes and how their specialized cells are capable of maintaining proper internal conditions despite external stressors. His research allowed me to interact with a variety of organisms, ranging from Splitnose Rockfish to giant clam, from Yellowfin Tuna larvae to chaoborus larvae. Garfield is currently an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Andrew Thompson (NOAA SWFSC) and Greg Rouse (SIO, UCSD) to extract physiological, genetic, and isotopic information from 67 years of archival rockfish samples. However, he continues his work on otolith calcification as a visiting researcher.

 

In his free time, Garfield works with fellow artists and scientists to communicate research using Squidtoons comics (www.squidtoons.com). Squidtoons has since been published as a children’s book (Andrews McMeel Publishing), incorporated into a textbook (Essentials of Oceanography, 11th edition, Pearson Publishing), and displayed at a public aquarium (Seymour Marine Discovery Center, Santa Cruz, CA, USA).

Research Interest:

  • Physiology and ion-transport within aquatic organisms
  • Ion-transport mechanisms within otolith calcification
  • Environmental impacts on otolith calcification

 

Garfield is interested in the physiological responses of fishes to hypercapnic stress (e.g. ocean acidification, upwelling). He is currently focused on elucidating the mechanisms and proteins involved in otolith calcification.

Selected Publications: