J ROBERT CLARK

Hello. My name is John, and I make things.

I’ve made things out of necessity. For fun. In the name of art. And to learn science. I’ve made things because I could, and because I wanted to see if I could.

Today, I make things for people working to save species from extinction.

I earned a Ph.D. studying molecular systematics, biogeography, and taxonomy. For most of my professional life, I’ve worked in research and conservation. I began in basic research, studying evolution and the relationships between species and their environments. Later, my work moved more directly into applied conservation.

Eventually, I found myself in nonprofit leadership, advocating for species conservation, biodiversity, and the institutions that exist to save species.

My career has included work with zoo-based conservation programs, botanical gardens, and conservation organizations, including the Center for Plant Conservation, San Diego Zoo Global, the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Catalina Island Conservancy, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

Even in those official capacities, I found ways to make.

Early in my science career, while at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, I designed and built a custom automated humidity chamber for starting young plantlets after growing them in test tubes. Much later, as a researcher at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, I built the garden’s first molecular laboratory. Literally. With a federal grant award, I designed and built an actual laboratory: walls, benches, cabinets, electrical, and plumbing.

Many times before and since, when there was a problem that needed a solution, I leaned on my maker skills to make it work.

Science is often like this.

At the edge of what’s been done before, there aren’t always off-the-shelf answers. Only so many instruments exist, and they’re rarely made for the specific needs of the rarest species. Sometimes the thing has to fit a particular animal, procedure, or application, and that thing simply hasn’t been created yet.

This is where I can help.

I design and build custom instruments for wildlife reproductive science and conservation research. Most of my work involves electroejaculation probes, control systems, and related equipment for researchers, veterinarians, zoos, sanctuaries, universities, conservation breeding programs, and field teams.

Some of these tools are for animals most manufacturers will never design around. Rhinos. Koalas. Platypus. Cheetahs. Wolves. Antelope. Species with novel constraints that don’t line up neatly with anything in a catalog.

I’m not a large manufacturer. I’m a person with a science background, a conservation career behind me, and a shop full of tools. I cut, cast, solder, wire, sand, drill, test, label, and usually revise. Sometimes more than once.

That’s how useful things get made.

A probe has to fit the animal. A control system has to make sense to the person using it. Design matters. Safety matters. These instruments need to work, and they need to be intuitive to use. The small choices matter because the people using the equipment are usually focused on something much more important than the equipment.

They’re focused on the animal.

I like building tools for this kind of work. Not because the tools are fancy. Most are not. I like it because they’re specific. They solve a real problem for a real person doing work that matters.

A project usually starts with a conversation. What species? What procedure? What’s worked before? What’s failed? Where will the system be used? Who will use it? How will it be cleaned, packed, powered, and explained to the next person?

From there, I try to build the thing that should have existed already.

Sometimes that means a complete custom system. Sometimes it means a better probe or a modified design. Rarely, it means something completely new. And sometimes it just means helping think through the problem and realizing the solution is already in someone’s hands.

That’s fine too.

I make things. If you’re working to save species and need something made, I’d be happy to help.