MY YEAR OF DARWIN

20 Jan 2014: "The voyage of the Beagle has been the most important event of my life, and has determined my whole career " -Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle 

What would be the modern equivalent of Darwin's voyage? Nothing. A recent graduate going around the world, stopping at various ports to collect as much as possible over several years is not something that happens these days. However, I know of several graduate projects that do this piecemeal, such as Auburn's grant to inventory catfish diversity and Utah State's inventory of parasites in se Asia. When we look at the products of these trips, we tend to think publications and new species but we tend to overlook that we also get students that are now highly trained and become highly motivated.