David Chan was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho and while he doesn’t recall much about it, he does have a heavy, brass potato shaped piggy bank from the 1st National Bank of Idaho and an unrepentant love of potatoes. At the age of 7 his mother who was working at NASA took him on a tour of the original space shuttle (Enterprise) where he met one of the pilots and sat in the cockpit. It was at that moment that he realized his love of science, exploration and his desire to be an astronaut. It wasn’t until later that he realized he still loved science and exploration but that he was more fascinated by the ocean than the universe and decided instead to become a marine biologist.

After living in Paris and learning the language and culture of Jacques Cousteau, one of his childhood heroes, Dave trundled off to the University of California at Santa Barbara to study marine biology. While there he got his degree, became a scientific diver and began his quest in earnest to explore, learn and share his love of the ocean. After classes and sometimes in lieu of his classes Dave worked on projects studying kelp forests, the ecology of oil platforms as well as foraminifera and their relationship to climate change. This research was conducted in such exotic locales as the Caribbean, Antarctica and Catalina Island. Professors and staff at the university, such as Shane Anderson, Dr. David Lea and Dr. Milton Love, were his mentors and inspired him to new heights. In 1996 after having served as the Specimen Collector and Assistant Diving Safety Officer for the university, he left Santa Barbara for San Francisco in search of new challenges and opportunities.

Upon moving to San Francisco, his first project was to help design, build and stock the $38 million Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39. A little over a year after it’s opening, Dave was recruited to join the team at the Steinhart Aquarium (a part of the California Academy of Sciences) in nearby Golden Gate Park. Over the course of his career as a Senior Biologist at the Steinhart he managed the famous Roundabout exhibit (which was the first aquarium to display a Great White shark and the endangered Giant Sea Bass) and the California Waters gallery. Throughout this time he also served as the Diving Safety Officer for the California Academy of Academy of Sciences managing the daily diving operations of the aquarium and research expeditions. Dave played an integral role in the design and construction of both the $13 million Transition facility in downtown San Francisco as well as the $625 million new California Academy of Sciences. At the time it reopened in Golden Gate Park in 2008, it was the greenest public building in the world and is the only one to be certified as LEED Double Platinum by the Green Building Council. Dave was a senior member of the design committee for the Steinhart Aquarium and served as Team Lead on the 100,000 gallon California Coast and Tropical Rainforest exhibits in addition to being a member of the planning teams for the 212,000 gallon Philippine Coral reef, 100,000 gallon Amazon Flooded Rainforest and South African Penguin exhibit, to name a few.

Many of Dave’s greatest experiences in life, such as setting up the marine lab and dive program at the Palmyra Atoll and trekking through the rainforests of Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago to collect colonies of living, biting and stinging army ants, took place during this period. However, when the opportunity to return to Catalina called Dave jumped at the chance and packed his bags. Dave has had the privilege of being the Director of the Pennington Marine Science Center since September 2010. Over the course of his career he has amassed more than 20 years of leadership, project management, exhibit design, science education, animal husbandry, life support system, dive and boating program management experience.