Awards & recognitions

Bridget Holohan – MVP technician

Posted on June 5, 2023June 13, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

Ewaldo: What was your academic journey before you got here?

Bridget: I grew up in Michigan, and I wanted to be an oceanographer. The only school close to where I grew up that had an oceanography program was the University of Michigan, and I wasn't quite ready to go across the country at 18. When I was finishing up there –this was before the internet so finding a job to apply for was harder than it is now–I didn't quite know what I was going to do for a job and decided to go to graduate school. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best decision to go based on that. I went to the University of Rhode Island and got my master's degree. I thought about whether I wanted my PhD, but I decided that I like to be the one getting my hands dirty, not the one writing a proposal or writing the paper. I wanted to be the one doing it. So, I decided if I got a PhD, more than likely, that wouldn't be what I was doing. I stopped at a master’s degree, which was a good decision for me. As I was finishing up there, I saw a job in the state of Connecticut at the Williams Mystic program. They were looking for a TA.

Ewaldo: And how did you decide to be an oceanographer?

Bridget: I decided to become an oceanographer when I was the age of 12. My family went on a cruise down in the Caribbean and one of the things we did was snorkel. The first time I went snorkeling, I was blown away. I had no idea that there were all these amazing things under the surface of the water. No idea. I grew up in the Midwest. I knew about fish, we have the Great Lakes, but the organisms under the water in the Great Lakes do not look like in the tropics. It was just so incredibly fascinating. I wanted to study the ocean but at that point it was just a fantasy doing research on the ocean. I was planning to become a pharmacist because that seemed more sensible. However, when I started thinking about applying to colleges, I asked myself: why would I be a pharmacist? What I really want to do is oceanography.

Ewaldo: Williams-Mystic program. What is it?

Bridget: It's an off-campus study program of Williams College, which is conducted at Mystic Seaport. And it's entirely based around the ocean. Students come in for one semester. It's like a semester abroad, only it is a domestic program which is focused on the ocean. And they take either marine biology or oceanography. They also take maritime history, marine literature, and marine policy. They read Moby Dick, as you might imagine. They totally get immersed in the program.

Ewaldo: That’s super interesting. What was your master’s degree in?

Bridget: My master's research was on the ecology of Ceriantheopsis americanus, which is a burrowing mud anemone.

Ewaldo: And why didn't you follow up on that particular topic?

Bridget: There's not a lot of jobs for that particular topic. So, I found a job that was mainly education. But it was a horrible salary. Like a third of what you students make. So, in the summer, I went to an oceanography summer camp and worked there. Then after a couple of years, I was like: “Okay, I cannot make a living at this”. I was searching around not being so successful. In the meantime, I did another environmental education job down in Virginia, which was fun.

Ewaldo: All the way down! So when did you come back up to the Northeast?

Bridget: As I was finishing that up, my former boss said: “I got a Pew Foundation Grant, and I put in money for a research assistant. Do you want to come work with me?” I said yes and I went to work with him, but it was only a two-year grant. As that was coming to an end, I saw a job by a man named Evan Ward. I didn't really know anything about culturing phytoplankton, which was what he wanted. But I figured I could learn. Why not? Right. So yeah, that's how I got here. And that was in 1999.

Ewaldo: It's been 24 years! And what was your position then – and currently?

Bridget: I was a research assistant when I started. Now, I'm a research assistant three, but in a lot of ways, my job is very similar. The only thing that has really changed is that as funding got tight, I started to work for Rob Mason as well. I also worked with Claudia for some time, because her job was expanding. I like the fact that there's a lot of variety. I hate being bored.

Ewaldo: You have done a lot of different things and learned a lot of things in this dynamic way. What were your biggest challenges and also biggest joys here?

Bridget: You know, I really enjoy working with bivalves, I like running experiments. Even though sometimes they can be a little crazy. I like seeing the whole process, from what we are proposing to do, to making it happen, and analyzing the data. And then luckily, I don't have to write it.

Ewaldo: Would you have advice for grad students?

Bridget: Boy, that's a really good question. One of the things in this is just kind of funny, because writing is not my favorite thing to do. But people often get hung up on the writing portion, thinking to themselves: “Okay, I need to write the perfect sentence”. Sometimes you just need to write. The beauty of the computer is that you can delete it, you can move it, you can copy and paste it into a different document. So you just have to get your ideas down on “paper”, and then refine them later. Just write it down, get it on the computer, and then fix it.
Also, I recognize that there can be a weird power dynamic between students and professors. But with most professors, you can really just say, “I need help with this….” Rather than wasting a bunch of time, being afraid to ask. Professors will be more receptive than if you wait five months and say you haven't been able to get this to work for five months. That is especially true when students are first starting out, and I see that is an easy role for me to fill. Because students are more comfortable coming to me and saying: “Hey, I don't know what's going on here”. Usually I can point them in a direction or even facilitate the conversation. And of course, there have certainly been times that my advice has been about things having nothing to do with oceanography.

Ewaldo: This is all great advice. Thank you. Maybe the final question, what's the story behind the five cents for advice in your door?

Bridget: I came back to my office one day, and we had a new nameplate and my title was wrong. Nobody told us they were going to change nameplates. I was not happy, so I took it off. I, of course, calmed down. I was going to put the correct title and make it more legible by making our names bigger (I shared an office at the time). It wasn’t a priority for me, so I took my time replacing it. One day I came back to my office and the Lucy character from the Peanuts comic was there. In the Peanuts comics, she had a little booth where she gave advice for five cents. One of my colleagues put it in there because sometimes people come to me for things other than science related advice. I found out later that it was Jeff Godfrey. I thought it was super funny, so I just left it. And one day I came back and there was a little bag of nickels.

Ewaldo: Who did that?

Bridget: It was Lydia Norton

Ewaldo: I guess that sounds about right! Hehe. Thank you so much, Bridget!

Graduated Master and PhD students 2022-23

Posted on June 5, 2023June 5, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

The Department of Marine Sciences congratulates all our recent Master and PhD graduates! You worked hard, earned your degree, and enriched our community. Thank you, and best of luck for your next career steps!

Annalisa Mudahy (M.S. 2022)

Major advisor: Craig Tobias

Thesis: Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Water Column Respiration in an Urban Estuary Revealed Using Automated Respiration Chambers

Mathew Holmes-Hackerd (M.S. 2022)

Major advisor: Hans Dam

Thesis: Naupliar Exposure to Acute Warming Shows no Carryover Ontogenetic Effects on Respiration Rates, Body Size, and Development Time of the Copepod Acartia tonsa

Annette Carlson (M.S. 2022)

Major advisor: Samantha Siedlecki

Thesis: Quantifying Interannual Variability of Shelf Nutrients and Associated Hypoxia in St. Helena Bay with New Metrics and Tools

Lingjie Zhou (Ph.D. 2022)

Major advisor: Senjie Lin

Dissertation: Estimate Phytoplankton Carbon Biomass using DNA

Mary McGuinness (M.S. 2022)

Major advisor: Penny Vlahos

Thesis: Examination of Controlling Parameters for Total Alkalinity in Long Island Sound Embayments

Yipeng He (Ph.D. 2023)

Major advisor: Robert Mason

Dissertation: Air-Sea Exchange of Mercury and Its Species in the Coastal and Open Ocean

Patricia Myer (Ph.D. 2023)

Major advisor: Robert Mason

Dissertation: A Critical Examination of the Factors Controlling Methylmercury Uptake into Marine Plankton

Josie Mottram (M.S. 2023)

Major advisor: Julie Granger

Thesis: Refining the Use of Cold-Water Corals as a Proxy for the Marine Nitrogen Cycle Through the Comparison of the δ15N of Diet, Tissue, and Skeleton of Balanophyllia elegans

Michael Mathuri (Ph.D. 2023)

Major advisor: Julie Granger

Dissertation: Physiological Mechanism of Nitrogen Isotope Fractionation During Ammonium Assimilation by Marine Phytoplankton

Kayla Mladinich Poole receives R. LeRoy Creswell Award for Outreach and Education

Posted on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by Manning, Cara

Kayla Mladinich Poole, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marine Sciences, was awarded the R. LeRoy Creswell Award for Outreach and Education through the National Shellfisheries Association (NSA). Kayla was selected for her extensive communications and outreach experience with the public and in STEM, as well as for her work as an active volunteer at the annual NSA conferences. Kayla is the first recipient of the award created to honor R. LeRoy Creswell’s life and impressive work in outreach and extension services. Congratulations, Kayla!

Kayla and Prof. Evan Ward collecting samples in the field

Jamie Vaudrey selected for Faculty Environmental Leadership Award

Posted on March 16, 2023March 17, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

16 March 2023. DMS is proud to announce that Prof. Jamie Vaudrey has been selected for the 2023 Faculty Environmental Leadership Award (ELA). This award recognizes individuals who have worked alone or as part of organizations to support sustainability efforts at UConn and beyond.

Since 2005, the Office of Sustainability, within the Institute of the Environment has honored faculty members, students and staff members who have made a positive impact on the environment through their leadership in the classroom, lab, or in the communities which UConn serves

Dr. Vaudrey was nominated, because of her exemplary role as an environmental leader over the past years. She sets the standard for outreach in the Department of Marine Sciences. Communicating science is the fiber that runs through all of her research and teaching. She does this across a broad array of stakeholders often with competing interests. Her outreach extends well beyond advisory to active partnerships with citizen scientists, regulators, municipalities, and industry. It has helped to shape the stewardship trajectories of waters and watersheds regionally, and seagrass ecosystems worldwide.

Her leadership roles in professional societies and on advisory councils have pushed for more integration of scientific results into decision making and broadened participation of underrepresented groups in marine science. Dr. Vaudrey’s key role in gathering the momentum for establishing the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve was her crowning achievement of years of meticulous, patient teamwork, where she led countless meetings to bring experts, policymakers and public stakeholders to the table and eventually, through dialogue and her own unique way of gentle persuasion, make the CT NERR a reality in 2022.

In addition, Dr. Vaudrey has led numerous, hands-on team efforts in recent years to work on sea grass restoration and living shorelines initiatives, where she has been inspiring students and volunteers by practically working alongside them in the field. Dr. Vaudrey’s compassion for nature and the future of Long Island Sound emanates from her everyday work, which is a key motivating force for every member of her team.

Dr. Vaudrey also works with Save the Sound and helped develop an Environmental Report Card for Long Island Sound which has engaged senators and other state and federal agencies to seek additional funding for research on environmental impacts on local waters. Jamie is also the Coordinator for the Niantic River Watershed Committee, and she is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues in our local marine waters. Her impact on understanding of environmental and sustainability impacts in CT’s local waters reaches far beyond the classroom, but she is devoted to educating the next generation of scientists and managers on these important issues.

Prof. Catherine Matassa wins UConn-AAUP Teaching excellence award

Posted on March 16, 2023June 1, 2023 by Hannes Baumann

23 March 2023. DMS is proud to share that Prof. Catherine Matassa has been selected for a 2023 UConn-AAUP Excellence Award in the Early Career Teaching category. This is well deserved, because since joining our department, Catherine has distinguished herself as one of the most cherished, effective and innovative educators for undergraduate and graduate students of our Department and CLAS. Her enthusiasm for Marine Biology and her innovative approach to teaching Quantitative Methods and Experimental Design are a true enrichment to students and faculty alike.

Here are some excerpts of what colleagues and students had to say about Catherine's teaching:

"In addition to providing the foundational basis of marine ecosystems, she facilitates transformative learning experiences with hands-on laboratory and field activities where students apply their knowledge and conduct independent research. Courses where students conduct independent research require much larger investment of time and energy from the instructor." Prof. Heidi Dierssen

"Almost from the time I arrived at UConn in 1995, I heard colleagues in Marine Sciences discussing the need for an Experimental Design/Statistics course for our students. Being located at Avery Point has always limited our participation in Storrs-based classes, so we tried, and failed, several times to develop a course of our own. When Catherine arrived, the problem was solved. Her class, MARN 4210Q Experimental Design in Marine Ecology, covers the basics of hypothesis testing and gives students a good working knowledge of R, the state-of-the-art computing environment for scientific statistics." Prof. George McManus

"Catherine created the experimental design and analysis course to address the demand for a course that covered statistics, coding and design. The course provided us with real data to run analyses on in R and posed questions, which we addressed with experimental design. The homework was dynamic and helped me hone my abilities coding in R and interpreting statistical results. I took a statistics class during my undergraduate studies but gained a much better understanding of analyses with Catherine's hands-on approach." Kayla Mladinich, PhD student

"I took Dr. Matassa’s Marine Biology course in the Fall of 2022. I personally was impressed with how innovative and diverse the content that she included in the class was. The laboratory experiments perfectly complemented the lecture period and helped me relate the information on the slides to real life situations. The ability to write and explore our own independent projects as well provided creative freedom that many other class labs seem to be lacking, and she did well to encourage critical thinking and exemplify how our experiments relate to real marine problems. Her inclusion of science communication in the curriculum was also a refreshing innovation to the lecture period, and something I had not experienced before in a STEM class." Greg Aniolek, undergraduate student

"Dr. Matassa coordinated an engaging field trip to Avery Point that was an exciting opportunity for students to expand their knowledge outside of the classroom. This opportunity included a tour of the Long Island Sound on a Project Oceanography research boat. While the tour was guided by two Project Oceanography educators, Dr. Matassa took every chance to communicate additional information that related to our classroom studies and energetically answered the questions that were raised. Dr. Matassa had something interesting and relevant to say about every species that we collected on the boat." Lukas Liebowitz, Senior Biology Major 2023

Anagha Payyambally awarded Quad Fellowship

Posted on January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Manning, Cara

Congratulations to Anagha Payyambally, a PhD student in Professor Cara Manning’s research group, who has been selected as part of the inaugural class of Quad Fellows. Anagha is one of 100 recipients out of over 3200 applicants across all STEM fields to be selected for this fellowship, which is administered by Schmidt Futures (a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt). The rigorous selection process involved a written application, reference letters, and two interviews, and was designed to assess candidates’ academic excellence, intellectual rigor, interest in the intersection of STEM and society, capacity to bridge differences, and orientation towards results.Here is some info on the award, from Quad:
“This program sponsors 100 exceptional American, Japanese, Australian, and Indian master’s and doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to study in the United States. The fellowship develops a network of science and technology experts committed to advancing innovation and collaboration in the private, public, and academic sectors, in their own nations and among Quad countries. The program builds foundational understanding among Quad Fellows of one another’s societies and cultures through cohort-wide trips and robust programming with each country’s top scientists, technologists, and politicians.”

The next application for Quad Fellows is expected to open in November 2023.

Meet Dennis Arbige

Posted on December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

By Ewaldo Leitao.

For the longest time, Marine Science students and staff have known who to email first with any worries or equipment malfunctions: Dennis Arbige. Until recently, Dennis was the manager of our Marine Sciences Building, but Dennis has been so much more than a manager. A man of many hats, Dennis not only knows the building like the back of his hand, but is also a talented electrical engineer who deals with a multitude of equipment (and their problems) allowing research to go as smoothly as possible – always with a smile on his face. Dennis has now retired, after 29 years of service to the department. We conducted an interview to learn more about his path, his past, and the changes he saw while working here.

Dennis, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview. What has been your career path and how did you get here?

Dennis: It’s my pleasure! So, I grew up with Jacques Cousteau books’. I think the first book I read cover to cover was a Jacques Cousteau book because I had to read it in high school and it was only 70 pages, so I picked that. I was like “Oh, this is pretty interesting” how they do scuba and things like that. I then became interested in oceanography, while growing up near the ocean in Rhode Island. In high school I went to the Coast Guard to get money for college. I wanted to be a marine science technician in the Coast Guard. I wanted to go out and measure things like salinity and temperature, and I thought that would be pretty cool. But when I got to the Coast Guard they were like “well, we don’t do this anymore”. So I became an electronic technician.

EL: How did you come back to oceanography?

Dennis: During my four years in the Coast Guard, I was stationed all over the country. I was in Boston for a while, and they used to fly me over on a helicopter as an aid to navigation, working in lighthouses and things like that. This was about the time they were changing to automated lighthouses, so they would drop me off on these crazy little lighthouses all over Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I worked with a team, and installed things like fog detectors, etc. This was back in the early 80s. Every single installation had its challenges, because these were all old structures. It was super fun, these lighthouses were historical and cool. So I did that for four years, and when I left the Coast Guard I joined Rutgers University for an electrical engineering degree. I worked in New Jersey for a while, and while I was there I got interested in physical oceanography. There were people working on satellite stations and satellite dishes, for NASA and NOAA. So I became interested in what they were doing, remote sensing, sea surface temperature, and things like that. I started taking graduate courses in sea-water interaction, because they didn’t have any physical oceanography courses.

EL: So did you finish grad school and applied for jobs in oceanography?

Dennis: When I was still in grad school someone sent me a job application for a place called Ocean Surveys, in Old Saybrook in CT, I interviewed and I got the job. They did a lot of bathymetry and ocean sensing, near shore coastal stuff. So actually while I was in Ocean Surveys, I worked in the attic, with these slanted roofs. One day I heard this voice complaining, one of the customers kept bumping his head on the ceiling, and I was like “who is that guy?” My colleague told me this tall guy was from the UConn Marine Sciences department, his name was Frank Bohlen. So I ended up sending letters here to UConn, because I thought that “this place sounds like fun”. Actually Frank said: “hey, come on in, we can talk”. There was another wave of retirements at that time, in the 80s, so eventually, I got a job. I came here as an electronic research technician, 29 years ago. And I just never left.

EL: You jumped from industry back to academia sort of in a way. Was there something that appealed to you in this academic environment?

Dennis: Yes, it seemed that it was more fun, it had more variability. When I was here I worked as a scientific diver, and I also had some boating experience. Back in the day there were fewer people here, so I got to run small boats and to dive. I used to tell my wife: I would do this job for free, and she would reply “you better stop saying this”. It was fantastic, it was so much fun being here.

EL: You’ve seen a lot of changes here clearly, including this building being built. Can you talk a bit about how it was to experience that?

Dennis: When we got this building, that was a game changer. We went from the old building to this new building in 1999- late 2000s. The faculty got to design this building from the floor to ceiling. They basically got a piece of paper and were asked “what do you guys want?”. The faculty decided to have environmental chambers, a wet lab, a hydrodynamics lab, etc. And so it happened, and that was thanks to Dave Cooper who had a lot of influence, and he was a very smart guy. The new building put us on the map basically. A couple of years later we also went from the old RV UCONN to the RV Connecticut. When we got the floating docks, all of the facilities were consolidated in one location, here.

EL: In this building, would you consider that you’re a jack of all trades and master of all? Haha

Dennis: Master of none! That’s what you mean! OK, at this point I know a lot about this building. It’s funny to even talk to the trades people that we hired to come in here, I tell them: “pay attention to that because that will affect x, y and z, which will affect something else” and so on. It’s good to pass this knowledge along because some of this stuff will be hard if you don’t know about it. This is a complex building with a lot of systems, and they’re all interconnected, but it might not be clear why or how, so that’s something that I had to learn over time, by default, because you keep coming back inside.

EL: What was one of the happiest moments that you experienced in your career?

Dennis: The ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) were really fun! I’ve seen shipwrecks, I've seen crazy fish that I've never seen before. One time we put the ROV in the bottom, and the bottom looked like it was moving. It is all dark and you can’t see much, so as the ROV was approaching the bottom we saw that it was covered with shrimp. These shrimp were like 4-6 inches long! We were trying to find a place to land not to crush all these shrimp, because they were everywhere. We were off of North Carolina. The captain and the crew were all fishermen at some stage in their lives, and they were all going crazy, like “we never seen shrimp this thick before!”. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my life.

EL: You’ve seen so many cohorts of grad students. Do you have any advice for younger students?

Dennis: Don’t be intimidated by the faculty and staff, because they're good people. If you have a question you should just go and ask. We all want you to succeed. Everybody will pretty much go out of their way to help you, to make sure that the students succeed. Faculty are just regular people. For example, my own kids used to play soccer with the faculty here, and they realized that the faculty are just regular people, which greatly helped them get through college. So don’t be afraid to approach them and ask them questions.

EL: And since you mentioned soccer…

Dennis: I know, I can’t go through a conversation without mentioning soccer, haha

EL: When did this soccer thing start here? For how long has it been going on? Were you the one who started this?

Dennis: It has been going on for some time and it actually started with the Coast Guard. Again, the Coast Guard used to have about 200 people working here. They had a huge presence once I first got here. I started playing with the Coast Guard people and when they eventually moved out, they kinda bequeathed their nets to me. Some pop up nets that they owned. At that time it was just me and some other people, including Jim O’Donnell. Soccer has been going on since the beginning.

EL: Who are you bequeathing it to now?

Dennis: Oh, to Michael.

EL: Do you have a retirement plan?

D: My wife has a list of projects that I need to do in the house. So I told her I would do it but I’d have to quit my job. But now I am like, alright. I have actually learned a lot from working in this building and working with the contractors, so that helps me a great deal on how to do these home projects.

EL: But soccer is here to stay, right?

D: Oh yes, for sure. When you do these extracurricular activities your work is still getting done, but it’s getting done in a less formal manner. On the field and on the court. It’s an amazing community.

From microbes to whales: alumna Susan Smith on her career journey

Posted on December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

By Ewaldo Leitao.

Dr. Susan Smith graduated in December 2020, during the pandemic, from UConn Avery Point with Dr. George McManus. Her work focused on the ecology and molecular biology of marine ciliates (a kind of eukaryotic microzooplankton). During her PhD, Dr. Smith (Sue) discovered a new genus and species, published the first tintinnid ciliate genome, and formed lasting collaborations with some remarkable scientists. Susan is currently a research scientist at the Mystic Aquarium, where she studies the microbiome of beluga whales.

Q: Tell us a bit about the research you have done during your PhD.

Sue: While at UConn, I had the opportunity to take part in every facet of research—we would take a boat into the Atlantic and sample, bring them back to the lab and do microscopical and experimental work, and then use those same cultures for downstream genomic and genetic analyses. We would often do what my mentor would call “old world” microscope work, but would then take that same single cell and sequence its whole genome, all in the same lab. That kind of work that runs the full gamut of biological research is so rare today, but was such a valuable experience, and really allows you to understand your subject. I think the UConn Marine Sciences Department presents that opportunity far more than your average academic research setting, which is especially important for graduate students.

I actually had the good fortune of doing my B.Sc., M.S., PhD., and my Postdoc at UConn Avery Point (I’m a bit of a stubborn forever-student). I finished my postdoc two months ago (~1.5 years in) and immediately started my new position as a research scientist at Mystic Aquarium (luckily our labs are on the Avery Point campus so I get to keep my parking space and continue my path towards being a permanent fixture on campus).

Q: You’ve had the opportunity to teach during your postdoc. How was your teaching and postdoc experience?

Sue: I had the great pleasure of filling in for my (lifelong) mentor and graduate advisor Dr. George McManus when he was on sabbatical, which allowed me to teach his graduate course, Biological Oceanography. Teaching Bio Oce was a unique opportunity to work with higher level students that were serious about their graduate/educational career, and I valued and enjoyed that immensely. Luckily, even with my full time research position at Mystic Aquarium, I get to keep an appointment at UConn, and am scheduled to teach Marine Biodiversity and Conservation this spring semester (still seats left!). I’m extremely grateful to remain a part of both scientific communities.
Continuing a postdoc position in the same lab I did my PhD in allowed me to complete projects I was excited but over-zealous about during my PhD, and also allowed me the autonomy to ask new questions that were a little off track from the direction of the lab. Of course, there’s a major benefit in going to a different lab for your postdoc, especially if you want to change course on your research goals, but these days most PhDs end up doing two postdocs before finding a faculty position, so it’s something to consider.

Q: How did your previous work align with your current job in the aquarium? What are you doing now and what have you planned to do in the aquarium?

Sue: The postdoc project I was most enthusiastic about involved these unique ciliate species that live in cetacean blowholes (as a part of their natural, healthy microbiome). Admittedly, this project all started as a blatant excuse to collaborate with Mystic Aquarium and interact with the beluga whales there. I worked with some REU students (Research Experience for Undergraduate students) during the summers to investigate this more. The major benefit of this work was that it formed a collaboration with Dr. Tracy Romano (VP and Chief Scientist of Research at Mystic Aquarium). Today, my work at Mystic Aquarium largely surrounds host-associated microbiota. To be in a position where you have so many samples and project options that you can’t decide which grant proposal you’re most excited to write, is a great feeling. I also now contribute to weekly sampling efforts, so I get to hang out with whales every week—that’s pretty awesome too.
Part of my work today focuses on how the microbiome of a new animal host changes as they are introduced to a different host population. I also have some other fun projects going on, including genetic sexing of penguins, microbiome analyses in sea turtles, and stress-response tests in stranded seals. In general, my research is focused on answering these questions using non-invasive methods that not only avoid stressing the animals, but also can be used in the conservation of wild populations that are impossible to have close contact with

Q: What is the best part about working in the aquarium?

Sue: The best part about working in the aquarium are my colleagues. It quickly became clear that every veterinary staff member, animal husbandry professional, and researcher, are concerned with animal welfare above all else. Further, all Mystic Aquarium research has an application in the conservation of wild (often endangered) populations, and even non-invasive interactions with our animals are extremely regulated, as they should be. Additionally, and although lesser known, MA also puts an enormous amount of effort and resources into our stranding clinic, from seals to sea turtles, where the rapid recovery and release of these animals is of highest priority. These stranders also allow for some opportunistic (non-invasive) research sampling that can go a long way in identifying threats and diseases afflicting wild populations.

Q: Do you have any hobbies and/or activities you do in your free time?

Sue: This question would have worried me as a graduate student, since any energy put towards extracurricular activities would have been an unthinkable waste of time. However, I’m grateful that my current position is structured in a way that prioritizes a separation between work and home, which is something I didn’t realize I needed. Today, I’m happy to spend nights reading some old science fiction novel with a glass of red wine and dogs by my side. However, I also truly get pleasure from my work and will gladly spend a Saturday at a coffee shop with a (likely late) manuscript.

A soccer match to honor Dennis Arbige’s service for DMS

Posted on September 24, 2022September 24, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

23 September 2022. On this day, we honored the long years of service of Dennis Arbige, who is officially retiring as the building manager this summer (he’s still very much around, helping with the transition). We all know Dennis as the kind force keeping the wheels from falling off of our beloved building, battling with environmental chambers, autoclaves, and a gazillion other things, while coordinating many of the various upkeeps over the years. But Dennis is also a gifted electrician and underwater technology buff, who has accompanied several ROV missions in the past.

And in addition, many of us simply love Dennis as the cornerstone of one of DMS’ most sacred traditions: the Friday afternoon co-ed soccer game!
For that reason, we planned to celebrate Dennis’ service this Friday in style!

Best of luck, Dennis, for your next move in life.
Please, if you can, keep playing soccer with us!

Prof. Rob Mason presented with Lifetime Achievement Award

Posted on September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 by Hannes Baumann

July 2022. DMS is proud to announce that Prof. Rob Mason was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award during this years ICMGP2022 (International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant). A big, heartfelt congratulations to this award, Rob!

Here is what the awarding committee said about Prof. Mason lifetime achievements:
Cross-posted from ICMGP2022

Dr. Robert (Rob) Mason has been a professor of Marine Sciences, with a joint appointment in Chemistry, at the University of Connecticut (UConn) since 2005. Prior to his current position he was a faculty member at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, part of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies, from 1994 to 2005. After graduating from UConn in 1991 with a PhD in Marine Sciences, under Dr. Bill Fitzgerald, he completed a post-doc at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts working with Drs. Francois Morel and Harry Hemond. Rob completed his undergraduate training in Analytical Chemistry in Durban, South Africa (RSA) and his MS at the University of Cape Town in 1983. Besides his academic studies and achievements, he has worked in research and development and for the Sea Fisheries Research Institute in Cape Town, RSA, studying oil pollution, and also completed 2 years as a program officer for the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

Rob has authored and co-authored over 230 scientific papers and book chapters, with over 27,485 citations with an H-index of 85 (Google Scholar). His four highest cited papers have more than 1000 citations each. He has co-edited four books and edited 6 special issues of journals focusing on large research activities, such as multi-investigator ocean cruises and conferences. He published the book Trace Metals in Aquatic Systems. Rob and his research group have presented papers at more than 400 national and international meetings, and he has been invited to present his research at institutions globally. Rob has attended all the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP) conferences, except the first conference in Sweden when he was denied a visa due to the cultural boycott against South Africans that was in place due to the continuation of apartheid. He has been a ICMGP plenary speaker on two occasions (Minamata in 2004 and Nova Scotia in 2011). He has been on the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) for a number of the ICMGP conferences, and was an Executive Committee Member for the 2017 conference in Providence, Rhode Island, and is for the 2022 virtual meeting. He has been on the organizing committee and a SSC member for other international conferences, including the International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment (ICHMET), where he was a plenary speaker in 2018, and the International Estuarine Biogeochemistry Symposium (IEBS), which he hosted in 2004. He has chaired sessions at most of the ICMGP meetings and at the other conferences that he has attended.
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His mentoring activities have resulted in 13 PhD and 8 MS theses, where he has been the major advisor, and he has been a committee member for many other graduate students. Eighty percent of his graduate students have been women and, besides the USA, his students have come from Africa and Asia. He has been an external examiner for PhD students in Canada, Europe and South Africa. He has also mentored more than 10 post-docs and visiting scientists from around the world, including Fulbright Scholars and students/post-docs from Europe and Asia. He has also had many high school and undergraduate students working in his laboratories over the years. He has taught classes throughout his career, and has always incorporated his research into his teaching. He expects to continue to teach classes in Chemical Oceanography, Trace Metals and Isotopes and Environmental Chemistry in the future.

He has collaborated extensively with scientists from around the world and has been involved in synthesis and other activities through national and international organizations including the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and other UN organizations, and their partnership programs, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), and the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants (HTAP) initiative. He has been actively involved in communicating science to policy makers both in the USA and globally. He has been involved in many activities as a science advisor to federal, state and local organizations and industry related to contaminated sites and/or the impacts of human activities on local waters and biota, and subsequently humans and wildlife, and in their remediation.

Rob’s research has been funded by numerous federal and state agencies, as well as from non-governmental organizations, with the majority of his funding from the NSF (30 grants). He has been part of long-term studies, such as the METAALICUS Project, the GEOTRACES Program and studies on mercury in coastal environments in collaboration with colleagues at Dartmouth College. He has collaborated extensively with scientists in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. His research has taken him to the far corners of the Earth, including remote regions of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He has participated in 9 open ocean cruises during his career, and been chief scientist on more than one occasion, and has been involved in many coastal cruises and terrestrial studies. He has conducted research in Southern Africa and was also a Fulbright Scholar doing studies in West Africa related to artisanal gold mining (ASGM) impacts on the environment.

Rob recently participated in a research cruise in the Arctic Ocean and his post-doc was involved in another cruise around Iceland in 2021. He expects to continue his open ocean studies going forward, and hopes to remain involved in the GEOTRACES program. He is continuing with studies of Hg interactions in coastal waters, and the relationship between Hg cycling and transformation and those of other elements, such as selenium. He is currently the major advisor/co-advisor of 5 PhD students and is actively involved in their research, and is also actively writing papers based on prior studies. There are many papers still to be written and he is also currently involved in synthesis efforts as part of the current AMAP mercury synthesis. He expects to remain active in research, teaching, consulting and related activities for several years as there are too many good ideas to pursue to stop right now!

On the behalf of the mercury scientific community, the Scientific Steering Committee of the 15th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, cordially congratulate Professor Mason for receiving the LAA Award.