Currents Fall 2012 Newsletter - Volume XXVII, Number 2

17 Oceanographic Center— More Than 45 Years of Research Established in 1966, the Oceanographic Center (OC) was one of the first schools of what was then known as Nova University, a young university established in 1964. The initial OC was on a large houseboat situated on 15th street in Fort Lauderdale. The center was a unique research facility that provided opportunities for Nova University to establish a reputation in the research and academic community. Several of the first 17 graduates of Nova University emanated from the OC. From 1969 to 1970, the Oceanographic Center moved to its current location on Port Everglades, adjacent to the Navy base. Since that time, the OC has added buildings, faculty members, research, and academic programs, with more than 75 percent of the extramural grants and contracts of the entire university. Scholarships The following students have received scholarships to support their research in the 2011–2012 academic year: Aerial view of the Nova University Oceanographic Center—image circa 1973 Richard Dodge, then assistant professor, cutting a coral by the Boat basin—image circa 1979 Pat Blackwelder. Ph.D., then assistant professor, engaged in coccolith research on a transmission electron microscope— image circa 1980 Actor Steve McQueen consults William Springer Richardson, director of Nova University Oceanographic Center, on the development of submersibles for a movie produced by McQueen’s production company Solar Productions—image circa 1968 Abraham S. Fischler, second president of Nova University (1970–1992), on board one of Nova University Oceanographic Center’s vessels—image circa 1970 Andrea Bernhard (left) thanks tournament participants while Richard Dodge, OC dean, looks on. SEM of Bopyrid isopod Scholarship Sponsor Annual Scholarship Fishing Tournament Scholarship Recipient/Project Andrea Bernhard Ph.D. candidate Andrea Bernhard ’s research uses genetic tools for understanding stock structure of recreational and commercial fish species, including billfish, groupers, and sharks. Scholarship Sponsor Batchelor Foundation Scholarship Recipient/Project Brittnee Barris M.S. Thesis Project: “Eusocial population structure and ecology of alpheid shrimp in the loggerhead sponge Spheciospngia vesparium and other selected sponge hosts along the Florida Reef Tract.” Over the past eight months, Barris has been able to collect and analyze more than 3,000 specimens related to the research/thesis project funded by the Batchelor Foundation. Among these individual snapping shrimp, she has been able to quantify not only a significant reproductive change of a quasi-social species living in the Florida Keys, but also the prevalence of parasitism in this region, which is already temperamental to environmental stressors. Most recently, she has been processing samples to photograph with a scanning electron microscope to further analyze the reproductive biology and parasite- host relationship among these three common shrimp species.