James Morin is a Professor Emeritus in Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University. He received his bachelor's degree in 1965 from University of California, Santa Barbara; his Master's degree in 1967 from Harvard University; and his PhD in 1969 from Harvard University. He primarily studies the mechanisms and functions of bioluminescence in marine organisms. Since discovering luminescent courtship signaling in Caribbean ostracods in 1980, most of his research focuses on the behavior, functional morphology, systematics and evolution of luminescence in cypridinid ostracods. The complex luminescent signaling behavior involved in their sexual communication is the most complex known in the sea. He uses in situ field observations, recordings and experiments of these luminescent ostracods; behavioral techniques to study sexual selection; and basic systematic methods (including light and electron microscopy) and phylogenetic methodologies to determine evolutionary patterns. He also studies the luminescent courtship system in syllid polychaetes annelids. He studied integrative behavior of the coordinating systems in coelenterates especially hydroids, symbiotic relationships between fishes with bacterial light organs and their bacterial symbionts, and the structure of dynamics of subtidal sand communities.