Research Facilities
 The University of Victoria sits adjacent to the abundant and diverse fauna inhabiting temperate latitudes of the eastern Pacific coastline.  Many marine invertebrate species can be collected from intertidal sites around southern Vancouver Island and subtidal areas offer spectacular SCUBA diving. The University is an exemplary institution for research requiring access to both live marine invertebrates and to sophisticated research instruments, particularly for studies of morphology and development.
 The electron microscopy facility in the Biology Department includes a Hitachi 7000 transmission electron microscope and a Hitachi SM3500N variable pressure scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray microanalyser.  A variety of auxilliary equipment required for specimen preparation is also contained within this facility.  The Department also has a Zeiss scanning laser confocal microscope.  The Advanced Imaging Lab contains hardware and software for acquisition, manipulation, and analysis of digital images.  It also houses darkroom facilities for processing film-based images.
My laboratory is provided with flowing sea water from a recirculating system maintained by the University’s animal care and aquatics facility.  Sea water in this system is replenished weekly from the ocean and we routinely use it to culture larvae of various species of gastropods and echinoderms. A second water bench in the lab is provided with dechlorinated freshwater, where I maintain a colony of the pulmonate, Lymnaea stagnalis.
A grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation together with funds from the University of Victoria has equipped my lab with a digital camera mounted on a compound microscope with epifluorescence capability, software for 3-D reconstruction of histological sections, and equipment necessary for intracellular injection of fluorescent probes to monitor dynamic morphogenetic movements. A second imaging work station consists of a stereomicroscope equipped with a video camera.