Dr. Whippo is focused primarily on research projects that explore the community diversity, food web structure, and environmental stressors of nearshore habitats, and how they affect coastal resilience.
Dr. Whippo is a nearshore marine ecologist with a particular interest in the food web structure of submerged aquatic vegetation and adjacent habitats. He has participated in research from Antarctica to the high Canadian Arctic and many places in between, though he has primarily focused on coastal regions of the Northeastern Pacific. For the past ten years he has worked with academic, non-profit, state, and federal partners including the University of Washington, Hakai Institute, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Smithsonian Institution as a researcher and scientific diving technician. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington, a Masters in Zoology from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in Biology from the University of Oregon.