Gene Helfman

Gene Helfman is an animal behaviorist turned conservation biologist. With a PhD in Ecology from Cornell University, Gene was on the faculty of the University of Georgia for thirty years, authoring four books on fish and marine conservation and dozens of related scientific papers. He spent much of his professional career underwater demonstrating that fish are smarter than conventionally thought. In an effort to get the message to a larger audience, he has turned to writing screenplays and novels, on the premise that more people read fiction than non-fiction. Gene and his wife Dr. Judy Meyer, an aquatic ecologist, live on Lopez Island in Washington State.