Terrain V01 - Journal - Page 33
Sterling College | 31
Michael Tessler ‘09
Trustee, Alumnus, Educator
We spoke with Michael Tessler this fall about his love for nature, how it was stewarded
at Sterling, and then further fostered in graduate school, first working on moss ecology at Fordham University and then on leech evolution at the American Museum of
Natural History. He continued exploring broader questions of plant and animal evolution across the tree of life in his postdoctoral work. His research has led to over 30
journal articles, a textbook on phylogenomics, media coverage by the New York Times,
and fieldwork across the globe.
“Engagement with nature fosters a caring interrelationship, which means we can live
happy, healthy lives for generations and generations to come. One of the things I’ve
been working on is environmental DNA. So currently, I’m probably letting some DNA
go on the environment right now, as are the plants near me if they have a leaf that
drops or a little fragment that breaks apart. My name is Michael Tessler and I am an
Assistant Professor in Biology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. I’m currently teaching a course at Sterling and I also serve on its Board of Trustees—I graduated with
a degree in Natural History in 2009. So that’s where I am today, researching things,
teaching about them, and still catching as many frogs as I can.
As a kid, I would spend any time I could out in the woods, or in streams, looking for
tadpoles, checking out insects, something I really love doing. That’s what I wanted to
do with my life, I was convinced 100% but it was not something that was encouraged
at all in school. But I came to Sterling as an Outdoor Education major, to learn more
about that; it was wonderful. But there was also a real interest in being outside and
checking things out and learning the plants, learning the animals. I just adored it—it
brought me back to when I was five or ten years old and it just clicked.
The first person to spark things for me was David Gilligan, faculty in Ecology. He encouraged me to go seek out other sources and go find other experts who could engage with me. And that was huge for me, because it connected me from one community to a much broader community.
For the kids who love catching tadpoles now, there’s so much more of an understanding of our connectedness to the environment and nature around us. And there’s so
many more opportunities to learn about those things. And I hope that just continues
to grow and blossom with our understanding of how much we need to protect the
environment. It’s an amazing thing to be connected and being excited and kids get
excited and stay excited. Don’t let the world tell you otherwise.”
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