--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--
November 23, 2010
Contact: Tatiana Brailovskaya, Director of Communications, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (207) 633-9633; tbrailovskaya@bigelow.org
Bigelow REU Students Awarded Support to Attend ASLO Conference
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME -- Five of Bigelow Laboratory’s thirteen 2010 REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students have received funding to attend and present their research at the 2011 ASLO (American Society of Limnology and Oceanography) Aquatic Sciences Meeting this coming February in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Rachelle Campbell received full support to attend the conference by the Center for Great Lakes Studies of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Mentored by Dr. David McClellan, her research investigated ancient respiratory adaptations in whales. Campbell attends Southern Maine Community College.
Ileana M. Freytes Ortiz was awarded full support by the ASLO Multicultural Program (ASLOMP) at Hampton University. Ortiz attends the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Ortiz’s mentors were Dr. Rick Wahle and Ms. Charlene Bergeron. Her research project addressed the inter-oceanic differences in trophic structure of cobble-dwelling fauna.
April Klein received funding for the conference from Dr. Laura Mydlarz at the University of Texas, Arlington, where Klein is a student. Klein’s mentors at the Laboratory were Dr. Willie Wilson, Dr. Joaquin Martínez Martínez, and Ms. Ilana Gilg. Her REU research was a marine virus study of host-virus response to elevated levels of CO2.
Brandon Walus received support to attend the conference from the Center for Great Lakes Studies of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His Bigelow mentors were Dr. David Fields and Mr. Steve Shema. Walus attends the University of Maine, Orono.
Whitney Westman was awarded $1,000 by Bigelow Laboratory for the best presentation and poster of the August 2010 REU Gulf of Maine and the World Ocean Symposium. Mentored by Dr. David Fields and Mr. Steve Shema, Westman’s research examined the effects of kinematic viscosity on feeding behaviors in barnacles. She attends the Florida Institute of Technology.
The ASLO conference goal “is to bring together an international group of freshwater and marine scientists to meet the challenge of global change, exploring diversity and connections across the range of aquatic systems impacted by humans.” Both the Center for Great Lakes Studies and ASLOMP are funded by the National Science Foundation.
Bigelow Laboratory’s research focus ranges from microbial oceanography -- examining biological productivity in the world’s oceans at the molecular level -- to the large-scale biogeochemical processes that drive interactions between ocean ecosystems and global environmental conditions. These programs have taken Bigelow scientists around the world to every ocean and the polar seas. The Laboratory’s REU Program, Gulf of Maine and the World Ocean, was established in 2009 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is part of the national REU Program network and is the only marine REU site in the state. ####