Dr. Celia Bonaventura's creative talents are evident in the combination of fiction and fantasy of the Beyond Words Trilogy. Before embarking on this project, she worked at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, NC, where from 1972 to 2011 she carried out biochemical research and taught classes about the respiratory adaptations of marine organisms. Her academic career has combined basic and applied research and project-administration that involved leadership of an NIH-funded Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Center, generation of over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and authorship of seven U.S. patents. Some of her patents have been licensed and led to commercialized products. She enjoys painting and traveling and spends part of each year in Costa Rica.
