Award-winning writer Judith Garfield, a Los Angeles native, has always felt connected to the ocean. Her urge to immerse herself in a liquid environment kicked into high gear after high school when she traveled south to study biology at the University of California, San Diego--the campus with a ringside seat to the Pacific. While an undergrad, she wasted no time in realizing her dream of becoming a certified scuba diver. She also spent time getting to know other "aquaphiles," like the visiting scientist who directed the Marine Biology Laboratory at the Hebrew University in Eilat, Israel, located on the edge of the Red Sea.

Her schmoozing skills paid off, and after graduation, she filled out a passport application instead of local job applications. With passport in hand, Judith flew to Eilat on the Red Sea to work and dive abroad in this extraordinary diver's paradise. A year and a half later, she returned to San Diego and took up underwater photography while continuing to pursue a career in scientific research. After several years, she hung up her lab coat to become a freelance science writer-editor, an underwater photographer, and an author.

Judith's first self-published book, The San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve: La Jolla Cove, debuted in 1994, and for her effort, she won a San Diego Book Award for "Best Non-Fiction San Diego County Subject." With such encouragement, she decided to stay the course.

It was easy to know what to do next. Her newest book, The San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve: La Jolla Shores & Canyon, explores another--and in some ways more exotic--part of the park with its own brand of marine life and terrain. It too has won a San Diego Book Award: "Best Non-Fiction San Diego County Subject 2000."

Scuba diving, freediving, swimming, and surfing are Judith's passions. Within the pages of her most recent beautifully photographed book, Judith continues to share her insights about this wild, protected place. Let others go on about the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, and other natural wonders. For Judith, one lifetime of adventures in the underwater park will never be enough to see all that is possible in this tiny mile-and-a-half drop of ocean.

Following a 6-month stint in the Azores Islands, Portugal, in 2006, Judith returned to San Diego to complete her masters thesis, the topic being environmental education. She was recently awarded a Masters in Education with Distinction. Stay tuned for projects upcoming.