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Madeline Pacheco has formally begun her journey as a UCLA PhD student. Welcome to the lab Maddie!

Candice Cross completed her thesis, “The Positive Impact of Using an Asset-Based Approach in a Racial-Ethnic Centered Pre-Health Research Program on the Education and Career Goals of Undergraduates Underrepresented in STEM”. Congrats Candice!

The 2023 The Diversity Project Research and Networking Symposium brought together over 40 alumni of The Diversity Project, as well as students from UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. Combine with family and friends, we had nearly 100 people in attendance. So great to see everyone again!

The Diversity Project 2023 heads to Moorea with a newly minted group of SCUBA divers to complete their AAUS training and conduct research on the coral reefs of Moorea!

We’ve selected our largest cohort yet for The Diversity Project, selecting 13 outstanding future marine scientists. Congratulations to all the new students. We look forward to working with you this summer

Aji filed his thesis today, “Comparative Metagenomics of Coral Reef Associated Marine Biodiversity Across a Pollution Gradient in Western Indonesia“completing his PhD journey at UCLA. Congratulations Aji! We look forward to the amazing things you will do in Indonesia to support sustainability of its unparalleled marine ecosystems!

Eli Catalan, IoES PhD student in the Barber Lab is awarded a Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) Fellowship focused on  providing graduate students with opportunities for training and practice in developing use-inspired and actionable science to inform natural resource management decisions. More information on this fellowship can be found HERE

Austin Bentacourt, TDP alumnus and Barber lab master student (soon to be PhD student) is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue her PhD studying population genomics of of Dungeness crab.

Sam Degregori is awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology! He’ll be studying the evolution of vertebrate gut Microbiomes. Congrats Sam!

Congratulations to the 2021 cohort of The Diversity Project who presented their work at the 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting. Presentations included:

Physical Disturbance to Foundational Macroalgal Communities on Coral Reefs Causes Rapid Changes in Use by Herbivorous Fish Communities

Trait-Based Ecology Detects Changes in Macroalgal Community Traits Following Disturbance Events

Vertical Expansion of Turbinaria ornata, an Alternative Stable State Usually Restricted to Shallow Zones of Coral Reefs, is Not Limited by Nutrients or Herbivory on Juvenile Thalli.