"I'm never happier than when I see a shark. Nothing can put a smile on my face faster or keep it there longer than a shark. People ask if I am ever scared when I see a shark, but all I can think of is getting closer," Colwell says.

Colwell's quest for knowledge about sharks has turned into advocacy as she discovered that virtually all species — particularly great whites — are becoming endangered by a combination of international commercial fishing and a bad reputation.

Colwell pays for the expeditions she goes on and shares the information she collects on data sheets she has devised with the Shark Research Institute and other researchers, including Scott Davis, a University of California PhD student who has received grants from the National Geographic Society to track the movements of great white sharks.

In addition to Guadalupe, Colwell has traveled to the Galapagos Islands, South Africa and Costa Rica. In April, she will make a trip to Thailand with a Shark Research Institute expedition to study whale sharks and leopard sharks.

The exploitation of sharks as vicious, man-eating monsters irritates Colwell.

"That isn't how sharks are," Colwell says. "On our dives in Guadalupe, we hardly ever used the cages and the sharks were swimming 10 to 20 feet away from us. We began to recognize the sharks' unique personalities. Most of them were very laid-back. They moved very slowly and stayed at a distance, they were very tentative. Then there was one we nicknamed Psycho. He had no fear. He was in your face all the time, wanting to know more about you."

Colwell and other researchers hope to change the killer image of sharks and spearhead preservation efforts to convince shark-hunting nations that the economy would benefit more from ecotourism.

In addition to her math degree, Colwell has earned a certificate in health and performance science from Tech and has completed the entire course of basic organic chemistry and premedical classes available from the Institute.

In 1998, she enrolled at Emory University medical school to become a physician's assistant, but dropped out of classes after contracting Lyme disease and never returned. In 2000 she received a PhD fellowship in ecology, evolution and behavior at Tech but chose not to pursue it.

"I can't see myself working a five-day schedule right now," says Colwell, who works a 24-hour shift at the fire department, then is off for 48 hours. On her "off" days, she works at an emergency clinic, teaches classes in emergency medicine at Lanier Tech in Cumming, Ga., teaches dive classes and does guest lectures on emergency medicine for Tech physiology professors Phillip Sparling and Mindy Millard Stafford.

When someone, inevitably, asks Colwell why she's "just a paramedic," she has an answer ready. "I spent a long time trying to tell myself I had to do something that's not ‘just a paramedic,' then I realized it doesn't matter what credentials I have behind my name," says Colwell. "It's about whether I love going to work every day and I do. And I get to ride a big, red fire truck every single shift. That's every kid's dream."

©2005 Georgia Tech Alumni Association