User:Paulvanp

Born in Schiedam (1952), Holland, university educated in England and lately Canada, I am a working biologist mostly on the west coast of BC, specializing in aquatic and riparian biology, animal behaviour and history and phylosophy of biological thought and science. As most of "working" biology involves interaction with people ("I spent two years practicing wildlife management and when I realized wildlife can manage itself perfectly well, a lifetime in people management" - Harry Parsons)I have returned to one of the passions of my youth - sociology, and am currently studying that subject via the London International Program.

My particular biological interests are ethology and its off-shoots, entomology and within that in particular life history and interaction of organisms in "filthy" environments, amphibians, historical development of theories, classic biologists and wildlife/sensitive ecosystems/human interaction. At a slightly different level I try and specialize in making difficult scientific or technical information available to non-experts by writing articles and reports for nn-specialists via various forums. Unfortunetely I tend to write long sentences so there is plenty of room for editing any contributions I may make to Wikipedia. My main sociological interest is the (history and development of) the environmental movement and what drives the cohesion of disparate individuals and organisations to bundle in such groups as well as how the cohesion is maintained.