News at FSUCML

Dr. Mark Hay (Georgia Institute of Technology) Joins the FSUCML Scientific Advisory Board


Dr. Mark E. Hay (Professor and Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology) from Georgia Institute of Technology has agreed to serve on the FSUCML Scientific Advisory Board. Mark is an ecologist with considerable experience in food web dynamics across spatial scales that include terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems, and across taxa from plankton to algae, from herbivores to apex predators.

Lab Welcomes Intern from Spain


In October of 2010, the FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) welcomed a new visiting researcher, Cristina Lima Martinez from Vigo-Galicia, Spain. Cristina recently graduated from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) with a degree in Biology. She then won a highly competitive award (5% success rate) from the Spanish Ministry of Education that allowed her to come to the United States and enhance her research experience in marine systems.

Certificate Student Matechik to Present Research at URCAA Symposium


Marine Biology Certificate Student Christopher Matechik will be presenting his summer and ongoing research at the 2010 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Awards (URCCA) Symposium, to be held Thursday evening, September 30, at the FSU Turnbull Conference Center. The symposium celebrates outstanding undergraduate research and awards students the funding to conduct a research project or creative activity under the direction of a faculty mentor. Chris is an Honors in Biology student currently working on his thesis under the direction of Dr. Felicia Coleman and Dr. Christopher Stallings, of the FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory. He has worked in the Stallings lab since August 2009. After graduating, he hopes to pursue a graduate degree in ecology.

FSUCML to Co-Sponsor Workshop on Digital Content and Integration for GOM's Algae and Plants


The GulfPhoto Workshop: Enabling the Study of the Gulf of Mexico's Primary Producers will focus on the creation and integration of digital content for Gulf of Mexico's photosynthetic primary producers (algae and plants). It is co-sponsored by the Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (a NSF Research Coordination Network), the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory, the FSU Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium, the FSU Department of Biological Science, and Morphbank. The workshop will be held on Friday, October 8 at FSU's main campus in Tallahassee and on Saturday, October 9 at the FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory.

Northern Gulf Institute Awards $500,000 to FSUCML, COAPS, and the Departments of Biological Science and Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science to conduct research on the oil spill


The study, Impact of crude oil on coastal and ocean environments of the West Florida Shelf and Big Bend Region from the shoreline to the continental Shelf Edge, represents an integrated, rapid-response study of the impact of oil on coastal and ocean marine ecosystems of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, including the northern West Florida Shelf from the Big Bend Region west to Louisiana, that can be completed in its entirety within 5 months.

Dr. Peter Auster, 2010 Eminent Scholar arrives


Dr. Peter Auster, the eighth Mote Eminent Scholar in Fisheries Ecology at Florida State University, arrives on 20 August for the fall semester. He will be teaching a course in Ecosystem-Based Management and Conservation on campus and conducting research on shallow-water reefs off the marine lab while he is in residence. Dr. Auster is a Research Professor of Marine Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Connecticut. He also serves as the Science Director of the Northeast Underwater Research Technology & Education Center (formerly the National Undersea Research Center for the North Atlantic & Great Lakes). He received his master's degree in biological oceanography from the University of Connecticut (1985) and a Ph.D. in zoology from the National University of Ireland Galway (2000).