I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Dr. Robert Drewes, the esteemed Curator and Chairman of the Department of Herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences, upon his return from the Gulf of Guinea where he has been leading research teams over the past decade to study the unique flora and fauna of the islands.

He was still tired from his travels, but his exuberant personality and lively sense of humor were still intact despite his jet-lag. He supplied me a DVD of photos that illustrated his adventurous exploits over the years – such as grappling a giant python snake and mucking about in swamps at night in search of specimens – and proof that he certainly had a lot of fun in the field throughout the course of his long and productive career.

Learn more about Dr. Drewes and his passion for Africa and frogs in the "Why I Do Science" profile, and be sure to check out our story "Disappearing Frogs" about Bay Area researchers investigating the decline of frog populations.