Spring 2025 Update
Hello everyone! It has been a minute since I last posted, so I wanted to share an update on what’s been happening in my scientific journey.
In the Neuer lab, I have routinely done lab maintenance tasks such as washing glassware and equipment, autoclaving a variety of items, and cultivating media for cultures. I have also had the opportunity to maintain my own cultures of Marinobacter adhaerens, a marine bacterium, and now Thalassiosira, a genus of diatoms.
A recent project I have taken on is teaching myself R, the coding language. I have been learning through a few courses on Swirl and a book called Getting Started with R: An Introduction for Biologists by Andrew P. Beckerman, Dylan Z. Childs, and Owen L. Petchey.
I also recently accepted an offer to participate in an REU! This summer, I will be working under Dr. Jeffrey Krause at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Dauphin Island, Alabama. My research project is not 100% confirmed, but it will be about the marine silica cycle. This is an amazing opportunity, and I am so excited!
I have been brainstorming names for a series where I will interview researchers in biology and marine science. My goal is to bring people closer to the life sciences by sharing the work and experiences of the researchers driving this fascinating field forward. I will be interviewing researchers in the School of Ocean Futures as well as the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, and I hope to expand beyond these departments in the future.
Here is a picture of zooxanthellae algae living within the tissue of a frogspawn coral under a microscope. This was sampled by Dr. Susanne Neuer, my PI, during Open Door, an event at ASU!
References:
www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral02_zooxanthellae.html/