Northeastern professor and coral reef expert Steve Vollmer was working as a lifeguard in California when he first learned about the Three Seas program that would change his career trajectory — and his life.

At the time, Vollmer — a surfer with a biology degree from Colorado — was talking with a coworker who was counting wave sets at Huntington Beach. He shared that he was applying to graduate schools in Hawaii and California, hoping to pursue marine biology.

There was just one challenge: despite his love for the ocean, Vollmer had no experience studying it.

“She said, ‘Steve, you need some experience. Go to East West,’” which is what the Three Seas program was called back then, Vollmer says.

Accepted into the program, he traveled the world and met scientists who inspired him to go on to get a Ph.D. in marine biology.

“It was awesome,” says Vollmer, an associate professor at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center who teaches a Three Seas course on coral reefs. “The program did exactly what I needed it to do.”

Read more from Northeastern Global News.

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University