World Turtle News, 01/17/2020

Matt is a Staff Writer for theTurtleRoom’s Education Department, which includes contributing to World Turtle News. He has spent the last 8 years dedicating himself to the conservation of turtles and to the education of the public about them, and he has a passion for serving nonprofit organizations. His love for turtles – and all living things – has been with him his entire life. Matt has been both a member of and staff member for organizations that promote the protection of animals, including as an ambassador enrichment handler for the Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort (AWARE) wildlife rehab in Georgia and an Educations Docent at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. He has experience working with and educating about many other species of turtles who are in need, such as North American Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta), Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), and Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin ssp.).

Liam is a zoologist and conservationist from the UK and is currently studying for his Ph.D in Ireland. Liam obtained his M.S. in Zoology with Conservation from Bangor University, Wales in 2018. He has always had a fascination with the natural world and tries to experience as much of it as possible, whether that’s through his travels, work or wildlife photography. After knowing the career path he wanted to take in zoology/conservation, Liam then took a keen interest in reptiles, particularly turtles and tortoises after starting to research and read about them in his own time and during his degree.

Through a lot of luck, Liam is now studying marine turtles for his Ph.D with the main focus on marine turtle fibropapillomatosis (FP). FP is a tumor forming disease afflicting all seven marine turtle species but affects green turtles (Chelonia mydas) most. He studies in Limerick, Ireland but also gets to venture to Florida occasionally for his research.

Liam also keeps a leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) and common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) at home, which forms one of his hobbies. He also is an amateur wildlife photographer.