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 cyanobacteria, 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 phytoplankton. 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. 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/