Adriana Aquino is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Ichthyology Department at the American Museum of Natural History. She also works with the National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology to develop the online Seminars on Science courses the Museum offers through Connected University. As a child in Argentina, she was first drawn to science by her love for the natural world, particularly the ocean. In her teens, as she wrestled with questions about the origin of the universe, Adriana was attracted to cosmology. But it was ultimately biology, and trying to understand the nature of life itself, that became her passion.

A turning point came in 1990, when she worked at a small Argentinean zoo. "It was sad — almost like a hospital," she said. "Many of the animals came from deforested places and had no place to go." But the zoo had a good education program, and Adriana took advantage of the situation to talk to children about ecological problems. The children came back with their parents, and Adriana was amazed by what she saw. "After just 10 to 15 minutes of speaking to them, they were able to teach their parents. That's when I got the idea that if there's hope, it's through education."

Adriana studied with the country's top ichthyologists in La Plata, a city near Buenos Aires. She earned her Ph.D. in 1994, studying the genus Hypoptopoma, a group of armored catfish. Hypoptopoma are distinguished by a series of spiny teeth called odontodes on their armor-like plates. If you run a finger down the scales of an Hypoptopoma from head to tail, you won't feel a thing, but slide your finger the other way and the odontodes prickle like tiny pins.

In 1997, Adriana received a postdoctorate position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. There she set out to do a revision of the Hypoptopoma genus. She started with the Museum's extensive collection of fish, then contacted other museums around the world to send samples to New York. To study the full range of variation in the genus, Adriana examined all the samples collected in the last 100 years — more than 2,000 specimens in all.

One fun part of being a systematist is getting to name newly defined species. Adriana named some after previous researchers, some for the places the fish were found, and some for the unique physical characteristics that defined them. For instance, she named one long, slender species elongata, and another, bianalis, because it is the only Hypoptopoma with two plates anterior to the anus, instead of just one.

Though her research was going well, Adriana still sometimes felt isolated. She considers the Museum's collections to be enormously important, "the inheritance of humanity — a true library of biodiversity." Yet few visitors know the collection exists, or for that matter, that research is an important part of what goes on at the Museum. Adriana had always wished for a stronger connection between the Museum's research and education programs, so when she was asked to contribute to an online course on ichthyology for teachers, she agreed.

Adriana found working with the students and the Museum's team of educators to be incredibly stimulating. "It was like opening a window," she says. One teacher wanted to use the course for elementary education, and one was a teacher of autistic kids. Others had degrees in biology. She corresponded with all of them by email, trying to tailor her approach for each individual. "They all came from different backgrounds, but we shared a common goal," she recounts. "The course allowed us to connect, create a community, find overlapping interests. I learned something from every one of them."

By putting so much energy into education, Adriana realizes she is taking a chance, because it leaves less time for her research. "Scientists are under strong pressure to survive — you need to publish and write grants; and if you don't get money, you can't go on working," she points out. But she believes scientists have a responsibility to share their knowledge and besides, she enjoys her new role tremendously. So now, in addition to her weekly drawing classes and twice-weekly trips to the opera ("Standing room seats are just $10 — that's hardly more than a movie!"), Adriana is taking a course to become an online guide. In the meantime, she has volunteered for regular "office hours," during which her teacher/students call to discuss the existential questions of life, religion, and of course, systematics.