Dr. Charles E. Rawlings is a complete Scorpio, born 27 October 1958 in Johnson City, Tennessee, USA. Attending elementary, middle and high school in the city, Charles pursued the ‘normal’ activities during his adolesence: excelling in both academics sports including lettering in football and wrestling. At age 13, Charles embarked on his first trip abroad, traveling to England, Europe, and the USSR. The trip immutably changed him, and his passion for travel was born. At age 17, Charles studied at Duke University for three years and then at Duke University Medical School, graduating with an MD degree three years later in 1982.
      Dr. Rawlings subsequently began his neurosurgical residency at Duke University Medical Center. During his undergraduate and medical school tenure, Dr. Rawlings received multiple honors including being elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the AOA honor society before completing his residency in 1989. While in residency, Charles continues to pursue his interest in travel, and also became fascinated by pain, its substrates, and functional neurosurgery. During this time, he has penned a multitude of scientific articles, got married, and became a certified scuba diver, a certification that would deeply affect his subsequent endeavors.
      Over the course of the next decade, Dr. Rawlings became board certified in neurosurgery, was elected to the FACS, and continued with his distinguished neurosurgical career. Next, he became interested in the law and especially the medico-legal aspects of practice, which he is something he eventually pursued. In addition, Dr. Rawlings was selected for membership in the Explorer’s Club and the Royal Geographical Society. His curiosity for the exploration of the underwater world expanded greatly, and he became an advanced technical diver and he lead multiple Explorer’s Club Flag Expeditions to remote areas of the world such as Papua New Guinea, Tonga and the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia. Dr. Rawlings continues his involvement to this day.
      Dr. Rawlings continued to author scientific articles as well as publishing and showing his underwater photographs. His daughter was born in 1997 and his twin sons were born in 2000. In 1999, in between the birth of his three children, Dr. Rawlings decided to return to graduate school, as both an intellectual challenge and career change. He entered Wake Forest University School of Law in 1999 and graduated in 2002, at which time he passed the North Carolina and New Jersey Bar Exams. Next he entered the practice of law representing injured patients. Over the past decade Dr. Rawlings has enjoyed a distinguished law career and, in addition to the North Carolina and New Jersey Bar Assosications, has been admitted to the bars of South Carolina, Texas and Pennsylvania. Dr. Rawlings is also a certified mediator in North Carolina and a medical malpractice specialist by ABPLA (the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys), one of only 160 in the US.
      Most importantly, Dr Rawlings has been enthralled by experiencing the growth and maturity of his children. In additon, his work as an underwater photographer has become specialized to encompass primarily living mollusks and his photographs of living seashells and cephalopods have been exhibited in galleries world-wide and won multiple international awards. He has published the books Living Shells, Living Mollusks, and Art of the Living Mollusks revealing many heretofore unphotographed species. In addition, his other works include collections of haikus in Reverberations I and Reverberations II. Currently, Dr. Rawlings is in the process of creating his next book: a photographic exploration of angles and curves. 

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