Joel, received a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife, from Michigan State University in 1977, and then joined the Peace Corps program and worked as an Aquaculture Extension Agent for the Accelerated Rural Development Program in northeast Thailand for four years. Returned to the USA and began a M.S. degree in International Agricultural Development, specializing in fish reproductive physiology and aquaculture, at the University of California, Davis. Graduated in 1985, and then worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Animal Science with Serge Doroshov and Anne Todgham. Retired in 2017, but returned part-time to continue working on several projects, and currently on volunteer status through 2025. Collaborative projects with several UCD faculty, aquaculturists, state and federal agencies, have focused on techniques for monitoring the reproductive conditions of wild and domestic sturgeon, sturgeon aquaculture development, broodstock management, spawning induction and husbandry methods, gametogenesis and embryological development, and conservation hatchery development for stock enhancement. Have primarily worked with the white, green and Atlantic sturgeons but also, lake, pallid, shovelnose sturgeon, and paddlefish. Authored or co-authored numerous research and extension publications, including a book chapter on sturgeon aquaculture.