George Karleskint started teaching in 1972 and has been at St. Louis Community College, Meramec, since 1976. Karleskint enjoys teaching because it gives him the opportunity to help students understand the wonders of life and the special, and even somewhat mysterious, biological world in which they live. In 1994 he was given the outstanding teacher award by the Xi Lambda chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. George first became interested in marine biology as a child, on trips to Florida when he wanted to know more about the shells he collected. By the time he was in college he had learned so much about molluscs and taxonomy that he was something of a local expert on the topic. His varied college and graduate school interests (first chemistry, then biology, then invertebrate zoology) culminated in his current specialty of physiology. His family shares his love of travel, the ocean, and marine creatures.
