jaykeller
Jay L. Keller Curator
I am a financial services professional based in southern California by trade, but my lifelong passion for study of the natural world has culminated into what I consider to be a parallel career as a naturalist and wildlife photographer. In an effort to contribute as much as possible to our understanding of the natural world, I spend an inordinate amount of time documenting everything that flowers, slithers, walks, swims and flies.
My enthusiasm for nature began at about age 8 with a keen interest in insects, specializing in Scarabaeidae and other beetles. By age 13 I was leading tours and assisting with the cataloguing parts of the entire collection at Pennsylvania State University's Frost Entomological Museum, culminating with my own 8,000 specimen collection by age 15 and publishing some discoveries. For a long period of time throughout my lifelong biological interest, ornithology was a primary focus, setting various Big Day/Month/Year records, starting a new CBC and leading dozens of walks. As an undergraduate at Penn State in the late 90s, I contributed to various turfgrass research initiatives dealing with soil amendments, bentgrass morphogenesis and others, and was published. In the past few years, I extended my PSU agronomic experience to finally tackle the challenging field of botany, which in many ways dominates my biological surveying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Publications, Volunteerism and Accolades
1992 Daily Collegian Newspaper article citing my volunteerism at the Frost Entomological Museum:
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/arts_and_entertainment/article_dd3cf442-216a-56f0-81d5-b509f427f54e.html
Conservation of Virginia's Merrimac Farm:
http://www.pwconserve.org/issues/conservation/merrimacfarm/
Creeping Bentgrass Morphogenesis and Competition;
Valuation of an athletic field root-zone amended with DuPont shredded carpet
http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/turf/research/annual-reports/1999ARR.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
