~ Mike Sweeney ~

Mike Sweeney has been working in the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Invertebrate Zoology since 1968. He is involved in management of the Mollusca collection and research assistance in the field of cephalopods. Sweeney's work has taken him on biological oceanographic cruises to Bermuda, Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, Baja California, and several locations in the North Atlantic Ocean with colleagues from Japan, Russia, Canada and a variety of U.S. research institutions.

Mike has also conducted field work, often using SCUBA, in Panama, Seychelles Islands, Southeast Asia, and many western Pacific island localities. His projects have led to more than 20 publications concerning topics as varied as museum collection management, octopod systematics, and the distribution, biology, and taxonomy of various other groups of cephalopods.

From his home in Fairfax, VA, his leisure time is spent with his wife Shelley and his son Brian. As time permits, he indulges in his hobby: finishing the complete restoration of a 1937 International Harvester pickup.