Rob Nelson

Rob Nelson

Classification:

Affiliation: Montana State University

Groups: Ecogeeks, Mushroomers, Teachers

Interests: Mushroom collecting, birding, kayaking, cycling, sky diving, wake boarding, snow boarding, rock climbing, fish breeding, SCUBA diving, hang gliding

View Rob's Current Location

Background Info

My name is Rob and I'm one of the original ecogeeks. I consider myself a biologist, an educator and a filmmaker. It's a lot of hats to wear, but they all stem from my fascination of the natural world. Using video to tell the story of plants and animals allows me to use my creative side while fulfilling my need to educate. Let me give a quick background for those interested in what I (we) do.

I am originally from and still live in Colorado. I didn't spend my whole life here though. Most of my primary education was done in Texas when my parents moved to Dallas. I spent over 10 years there, growing up on the shores of Moss Lake, TX. I learned to love the outdoors from this early childhood experience. I also learned to love extreme sports as my family owned a boat and we'd ski almost every day the weather permitted.

When it came time to start college I decided my love was marine science - an inspiration from watching documentaries of Jacques Cousteau. I got a bachelors in marine science from the University of Miami having spent a year of my undergraduate program at James Cook University in Townsville Australia. This small Australian town is where I met the other founder of Untamed Science - Jonas.

After college, I worked for several years at an aquatic plant research facility near Dallas, learning botany, zoology and research methodology. I also studied salmon in Oregon Streams before starting graduate school in Zoology at the University of Hawaii Manoa.

I earned a masters degree in Hawaii specializing in behavioral and population ecology while studying a small shrimp-goby. As a part time job in Hawaii I worked as a nature tour guide, learning how to teach about wildlife. I also spent those four years working as an instructor for introductory biology labs. It was through a combination of these two jobs that my real passion for teaching and teaching with video arose.

I found that my true calling was to use video and use my personal experiences to help educate and inspire our students. Too many of the students I taught had no interest in the wildlife around them. That had to change. It was great lucky that I absolutely loved making videos too!

To help me get a better understanding of film making in science I enrolled in a second master program - Montana State's Science and Natural History Film making program. It was here I learned the ins and outs of filmmaking which set the stage for the website Jonas, Hazen and I wanted to create - UntamedScience.

Today, we make videos full-time in the name of educating youth. Its what we're most passionate about and what we feel most inspired to do. Our videos have allowed us to express ourselves in new extreme sports like snowboarding, hang-gliding, sky diving, scuba diving, white water kayaking, rock climbing, skate boarding, kite surfing, surfing as well as all the water sports I grew up with.

If you're reading this I hope you've found our site engaging and you're up for joining the team. Write me an email and I'll find time to send you a note back.

Cheers, - Rob