December was a busy month with three NUMSC graduate students finalizing their degrees and presenting their research to our community of their faculty advisors, mentors and peers. On December 10, 2018, Chuck Roesel presented his PhD dissertation, “Next-Generation-Sequencing (NGS) Profiling of Invertebrate Immune Systems”. Roesel was advised by Associate Professor Steve Vollmer and his research advanced understanding of immune response and disease dynamics in tropical corals.
Also on December 10, 2018, Allison Matzelle defended her PhD dissertation, “Linking environment to performance: A bioenergetics approach to understanding the effects of environmental variability across scales. Advised by Professor Brian Helmuth, Matzelle is excited to take the next step in her career by participating in the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, where she will be working in the Senate Majority Committee for Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Finally, on December 12, 2018, Carmen Elenberger successfully defended her Master’s thesis, “Relaxed selection in erythropoietic gene hemogen among high-latitude Antarctic notothenioids.” Elenberger was mentored by Professor H. William Detrich, and conducted field work at Palmer Station in Antarctica in order to collect the icefish which were the topic of her research.
Congratulations to all our recent graduates!