Dr. Shimek is an invertebrate zoologist with over 35 years of experience in teaching about and working with marine and freshwater invertebrates. He has taught invertebrate zoology with an emphasis on understanding the organism's role in its environment and how that role is related to the functional morphology of the organism. His research specialty is predator-prey interactions in unconsolidated sediments, particularly the interactions involving turrid gastropods, and scaphopod mollusks. Additionally, he has been a private consultant to federal, state, local governments and private businesses on the effects of toxic pollutants, mostly heavy metals, on marine organisms and ecological communities. He has published numerous scientific articles, and been an invited speaker at eleven international or national scientific or professional symposia dealing with various of the above topics..

He has been Chairman of the Biology Department of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and Assistant Director of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He has also taught at the University of Washington, the Oregon State University, and the Montana State University.

Awarded the 2001 MASNA Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Marine Aquarium Hobby at MACNA 13, he has published over 90 articles which have appeared throughout the aquarium magazines published in the United States. He has been an invited speaker at national, regional, and society meetings, where he has discussed and promoted reef-keeping based on knowledge of natural systems, and rationality.