Dante is a 4th year PhD Student in Biological Oceanography hailing from Sebastopol in Northern California. He earned a BS in Earth Sciences-Ocean Sciences concentration and a BS in Marine Biology from University of California, Santa Cruz. After spending his final quarter studying abroad at the University of Queensland he returned to Sebastopol to work in the Coastal Oceanography Group at the Bodega Bay Marine Lab.

The intense California wildfires during Dante's first research cruise in August 2020 inspired his research interests in the effects of the wildfires on the marine environment. For his dissertation research Dante is examining how smoke and ash from wildfires may impact the carbon cycle and the pelagic planktonic community in the California Current Ecosystem. Dante is also a member of the Program for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (PIER), seeking to collaborate with non-scientist experts, especially artists to make findings more accessible. Dante is also interested in integrating emerging molecular DNA metabarcoding methods with morphological and image-based methods of zooplankton through advanced statistical and machine-learning techniques, and using these tools to resolve environmental diversity patterns in the CCE.

Outside of research Dante enjoys physical activity especially running, yoga, skateboarding, cycling, and swimming and is a member of the Lane Zero Athletics Club where he competes in distances from 5k-marathon. Dante also likes to work his creative side through sourdough bread baking and art-primarily through pen and ink drawing. After a long lab day at SIO, Dante's go to refreshment is a dip in the Pacific ocean.