About the speaker:

Greg Rouse is a professor of marine biology in the Marine Biology Research Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and is also curator of the Benthic Invertebrate Collection at Scripps. He specializes in the study of animal biodiversity. Professor Rouse has been on numerous oceanographic expeditions involving deep sea habitats, including whale falls, hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. He spends a lot of time investigating the extraordinary bone-devouring worm known as Osedax. His deep sea research interests also include the study of new hydrothermal vent animals from the eastern and western Pacific as well as methane seeps in the eastern Pacific. This led to the discovery of new species of the bizarre 'purple sock' worms, Xenoturbella. He also studies the benthic fauna around Antarctica. Other current research interests include the biology and evolution of sea dragons, the echinoderm tree of life, particularly crinoids (feather stars and sea lilies), the diversity and evolution of annelid worms. He has been involved in the discovery and naming of more than 100 species of animals and has published two books and more than 200 scientific papers. Prior to joining Scripps, he held research positions at the South Australian Museum, the University of Adelaide, University of Sydney, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He obtaied his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Queensland and Ph.D. from the University of Sydney.

The talk on Quest for the Red Ruby Sea Dragon by Prof Greg Rouse attracted a crowd of 75, comprising of staff and students from NUS, marine science enthusiasts and members of the public. Prof Rouse gave a insightful talk on how he found the locations of where these elusive sea dragons are found, the bioinformatics research involved to show how they are related to other sea dragons and shared exciting live footages of ruby seadragons found in their habitat.