NSU Currents Fall 2014 Newsletter - Volume XXV, Issue 2

10 OC Faculty Members, Researchers, and Students Win Eight President’s Faculty Research and Development Grants The following Oceanographic Center faculty members, researchers, and students were awarded grants from the 14th annual President’s Faculty Research and Development Grants program. Created in 1999, the grants are designed to bring recognition and funding to the university’s faculty members as they attempt to secure resources in support of research activities. The program is proactive in terms of providing impetus and direction toward research activities and, in turn, receives a considerable level of attention by the university’s administration. Congratulations to our winners! “Reduce Local Stressors to Potentially Increase Coral Resilience to Climate Change” Joana Figueiredo, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Francesca Fourney, B.S., OC M.S. Student “Coral Persistence to Ocean Warming: Phenotypic Plasticity and Symbiont Selection” Joana Figueiredo, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Heather Schaneen, B.S., OC M.S. Student “WhenPhysical FormandDNACollide: Resolving the Evolutionary Tree of Crinoidea” Charles Messing, Ph.D., OC Professor Kirstian Taylor, M.S., OC Ph.D. Candidate “How Does Colony Size and Density Influence Paternity in a Brooding Coral?” Nicole Fogarty, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Charlie Gandia, B.S., OC M.S. Student Hunter Noren, B.S., OC M.S. Student “Port Everglades Inlet Microbiome Analysis Using High- Throughput DNA Sequencing” Jose Lopez, Ph.D., OC Professor Jay Fleisher, Ph.D., Health Professions Division Faculty Member Lauren O’Connell, B.S., OC M.S. Student “Reproductive Behavior of Nursery Reared Staghorn Coral: Documenting Outplant Success” David Gilliam, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Nicole Fogarty, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Kathryn B. Correia, B.S., OC M.S. Student Elizabeth Larson, M.S., OC Ph.D. Candidate “Assessing Seabirds of South Florida for Marine Environmental Contaminants” David Kerstetter, Ph.D., OC Assistant Professor Jonathan Schulte, B.S., OC M.S. Student “Developing the Common Reef Sponge to Study the Only Non- Neural Animal Eye” Jose Lopez, Ph.D., OC Professor Alumnus Author Donates Book to OC Library This summer, OC alumnus and author Alex Brylske , Ph.D., donated his book, The Complete Diver: The History, Science, and Practice of SCUBA Diving , to the Oceanographic Center’s library. The Complete Diver includes chapters devoted to diving history, physics and physiology, diving medicine, health and safety practices for scuba divers, decompression theory, how to avoid the bends, diving techniques, and the future of diving. Brylske is a professor of marine science at Florida Keys Community College in Key West, Florida. Alumnus Working in Belgium Fisheries OC alumnus Shannon Bayse , M.S., has recently taken a position as fisheries researcher at the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) in Oostende, Belgium. The job will focus on bycatch reduction within the Flemish beam trawl fishery. While at NSU, Bayse worked to develop bycatch reduction techniques within the local pelagic longline fishery. This experience opened up similar opportunities at the University of Massachusetts’s School for Marine Science and Technology. Bayse is completing his Ph.D., which focuses on bycatch reduction in New England small-mesh otter trawls. OC alumnus Alex Brylske (Ph.D., 1997) OC alumnus Shannon Bayse (M.S. 2009)