USCB Marine Biology Students Present at POSea Conference 2021
USCB Marine Biology students dominated the virtual stage on October 2-3, 2021, during the 2021 POSea Conference. Yessenia Bledsoe-Becerra, Jicayla Johnson-Rosemond, and Iesha Whittaker participated in this notable conference that provided networking and professional development opportunities for participants while showcasing the work of BIPOC marine scientists from around the world.
According to the conference website, the organizations of Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), Latinx in the Marine Sciences, Black in Marine Science (BIMS), Black Women in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Science (BWEEMS), Minorities in Aquarium and Zoo Science (MIAZS) and BIPOC in Ocean Science collaborated to host this virtual joint conference for the marine science BIPOC community.
USCB Biology alumna Jicayla Johnson-Rosemond presented her research entitled Bioinformatically mining next-gen capture libraries for black coral mitogenomes and won the Best Presentation Award in the 5-minute lightning talk category.
USCB Biology students Yessenia Bledsoe-Becerra and Iesha Whittaker presented Elucidating the black coral microbiome using amplicon sequencing and Assessing the biodiversity of oyster reefs using eDNA, respectively.
“It was such an enriching opportunity,” Yessenia said. “I learned so much about diversity in science and felt such a great sense of community. POSea was a great opportunity to get the word out about what USCB has to offer in the field of research.”
These students were mentored by Dr. Mercer R. Brugler, USCB’s newest Associate Professor of Marine Biology. Funding for these projects was provided by a NOS/NOAA/DoC award (#NA18NOS429021609), the Port Royal Sound Foundation, and the Spring Island Trust.
For more information about the conference, please check out this great resource: https://blog.ucsusa.org/science-blogger/posea-2021-conference-beyond-the-hashtag/
To see Yessenia, Jicayla, and Iesha’s research, please visit this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LklX-pq8U0GsjNlQRPiesIDcM79JyTHZ/view
