Whenever I ask ecology professor Morty Ortega how he finds the time to spend so many hours patiently listening while students share their hopes, dreams, and nightmares, he’s quick to say that he sleeps only four hours a night. When I tell him that I think it still doesn’t add up, he starts doing the math. Some light is shed by the fact that his math includes summers, holidays (we are talking in his office on Labor Day), weekends, and round-the-clock time during his legendary trips (you’ll see). And then a smile, “Think,” he says, “how many years I’ve been at this.” That would be 30.

Ortega’s been on my radar as a story topic for perhaps the last 10 of those years due to the sheer number of alums I’ve talked with — as we trekked through forest tracking bobcats, bears, or voles; or chatted via Zoom about their jobs, projects, and inventions; or just talked about life over a cup of coffee. Most of those conversations were for stories in this magazine, but even hanging with friends or friends of friends, Ortega’s name would come up. The context, invariably, is a version of this: I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for professor Ortega.

I knew I needed to do a story on this professor who had variously influenced the lives and careers of so many students. Is there anything more at the heart of what a professor does?

Our story, “The Ortega Effect,” introduces you to some of his former students and some of his secrets. But it doesn’t introduce you to his own family, the UConn alums shown above, who make it all add up for Ortega. “I wouldn’t be here without them,” he says.