NSU Currents Fall 2014 Newsletter - Volume XXV, Issue 2

11 Forman Endowment Scholarship Awarded This spring, Alyson Kuba , M.S. OC student, was awarded the Forman Scholarship, made possible by a scholarship endowment set up many years ago by Charles Forman and the Forman Family Foundation. This two-year scholarship will allow Kuba to pursue a research project studying the impactsof bleaching events on coral larvae with Joana Figueiredo , Ph.D., assistant professor at the OC. M.S. student Alyson Kuba Title V PPOHA Awards Three Fellowships M.S. student Jazmin Garcia M.S. student Valerie Miranda M.S. student Luis Ramirez The guidelines of the $2.8-million Title V grant to the Oceanographic Center through the federal Department of Education Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA) program specify the development of a flexible, supportive, and effective academic and career pathway as students with bachelor’s degrees efficiently transition into graduate degrees. Part of the fellowship is to assist with the OC Peer Mentor Program. This spring, the grant awarded three more fellowships. These went to OC M.S. students Jazmin Garcia , Valerie Miranda , and Luis Ramirez . OC Graduates Two Ph.D. Candidates In the second half of the 2013–2014 academic year, the Oceanographic Center had two of its Ph.D. candidates successfully defend their dissertations. These were Andia Chaves Fonnegra : “Increase of excavating sponges on Caribbean coral reefs: reproduction, dispersal, and coral deterioration.” Committee: J. V. Lopez, Ph.D., chair; Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D.; Bernhard Reigl, Ph.D.; and Sven Zea, Ph.D. Dissertation. March 25, 2014. ChristineTesterman : “Molecularecologyofgloballydistributedsharks.”Committee: Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., chair; Jose Lopez, Ph.D.; David Gilliam, Ph.D.; and George Duncan, Ph.D. Dissertation. April 18, 2014.