PhD Candidate Michael Studivan brought ocean exploration into the classroom, giving a lecture and Q& A session for sixth through eighth grade students at St. Andrew's Episcopal Academy. His presentation focused on why we explore the world's oceans, what kinds of technologies are used, and how FAU Harbor Branch and the Voss lab is exploring and characterizing coral reef environments in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. He also brought along the lab's OpenROV and demonstrated how open-source technologies are greatly facilitating low-cost marine research. 

On Monday April 4th, graduate student Danielle Dodge presented her Master’s thesis proposal seminar and was successfully approved by her committee (Dr. Joshua Voss, Dr. Dennis Hanisak, and Dr. Colin Hughes). Her project involves studying the effects of estuarine discharge on coral holobiont gene expression as part of the St. Lucie Reef (SLR) project. She will be conducting a microsatellite genotyping analysis to determine connectivity of corals at SLR with regards the northern extent of the Florida Reef Tract and will be presenting these results this summer at the 2016 International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii. Danielle will also be using next-generation RNA-sequencing to investigate gene expression responses of corals at SLR to influences of estuarine discharge from the surrounding watershed basin and Lake Okeechobee.

​Congratulations Danielle!