People

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Dr. Iliana Baums is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Ecology in the Department of Biology at Penn State. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Miami using microsatellite markers to look at clonal population structure and geographic variation in the Caribbean elkhorn coral Acropora palmata. She completed a post doc at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. Her research involves developing and applying molecular tools to understand the consequences of biogeography, population structure, and mating patterns to the survival and evolution of marine organisms.

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Jennifer Boulay is a third-year graduate student and a recent graduate of the University of Miami, where she studied larval fish ecology and dispersal dynamics.  She has been SCUBA diving for research purposes on the reefs of the Florida Keys and Australia, and looks forward to adding Cura�ao to the list.

 

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John Parkinson is a third-year graduate student interested in the early establishment of the coral-algal symbiosis.  When a coral is stressed, this partnership breaks down, and the algae are expelled in a process known as coral bleaching.  Rising sea-surface temperatures associated with climate change can lead to bleaching and death in coral communities.  Understanding how the genetic diversity of both the host coral and the algae affects the development of the symbiosis has important implications for reef management.  In addition to his spawn collection and larval rearing duties, John hopes to run some infection experiments by introducing freshly isolated algae to symbiont-free larvae.

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Nick Polato is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the IGDP in ecology. He received his B.S. from SUNY Buffalo with a double major in Biology and Environmental Studies. Nick is interested in using genetic techniques to understand how natural selection, population connectivity and biogeography impact the evolution and conservation of species. He is currently involved in projects applying a set of recently developed microsatellite markers to populations of the Lobe Coral, Porites lobata from throughout the Pacific, and developing a microarray to investigate gene expression patterns in the endangered Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata.

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Dannise Ruiz is a fourth-year Ph. D. student who will help collect the eggs and sperm bundles from the parent colonies on the reef.  Once in the house-lab, the bundles will be broken, eggs separated from the sperm, and crosses performed.  Coral larvae will be placed in their new home:  the temperature treatment tanks.  Afterwards, she will help care for the coral larvae, which includes lots of water changes, sampling, and even more water changes, until, hopefully, they metamorphose into polyps.  Then she’ll transport the babies to the reefs, wish them good luck, and hope to see them again in the future.