Author: Sam Trail
Date: October 22, 2024
The trilogy continues – it’s Part 2! Last month, many of our scientists answered the prompt “I should have known I would be a marine biologist when…” For some, the writing was on the wall quite early, and for others, the aha moment came later. Read on for our second batch of interesting origin stories!
We challenge you to read the stories below and see if you can figure out who is who! At the end of the article, the scientists that took a trip down memory lane are revealed. Stay tuned for our final installment next month - enjoy!
I should have known I would be a marine biologist when…
“At the age of five on my first family vacation to SeaWorld, I begged my parents to let me watch every whale and dolphin presentation in a single day. They obliged, and I sat in the splash zone for every show! I was obsessed with whales since that trip and over the course of my education it developed into a love for science. In high school, I had the opportunity to job shadow at the Baltimore Aquarium (photo), and I had a lot of great opportunities during my undergraduate years that continued to fuel my passion for research, marine science, and conservation."
-- Cetacean Fascination
“When I first began graduate school, I had little passion for science. I had landed a mentor that was all business and moody, but more importantly than that, he was an expert with exacting standards. His lectures were up-to-date and exciting. His laboratory was a draining crash course in how to write and execute an original project – how to do science. And his summer research opportunity at the Bermuda Biological Station taught me first-hand how hard you need to work to keep up and how much fun science could be. Anchored over a reef recording squirrelfish sounds or charging inshore to panic huge blue or rainbow parrot fish into tangle net mesh for later release in studies of sun-orientation, it was absolutely marvelous stuff! Marvelous stuff that was also good science. By the time graduate school was over, I left a changed person, well prepared to carry on as a professional.”
-- Moody but Marvelous Mentor
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“My 5th grade science project was incubating chicken eggs at various temperatures to look at hatching success. The marine part came later when I found a job working with sea turtles which piqued my interest in marine research. However, I always knew I wanted to work with animals, the only childhood pictures I have are pictures with animals!”
-- Chicken of the Sea |
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“I spent 2 hours at the stingray touch tank during a trip to the aquarium. As a landlocked, zoo/aquarium-deprived child of West Virginia, I soaked up every possible opportunity to interact with the then-exotic wildlife of far-off locales, like Florida, and my saintly academic parents blessedly encouraged this sort of inconveniently passionate investigative behavior. Being a mild-to-moderately insufferable animal-obsessed child, I also brought one of my beloved animal books to preschool to prove to my incredulous teacher that my favorite animal, the okapi, did, in fact, exist.”
-- Inconvenient InvestiGATOR |
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“I collected so many seashells on a school field trip that my bag broke! My prized shells shattered on the floor of the school lobby; the janitors and my fourth-grade teacher were not pleased. We had just returned from a field trip to a beachfront nature center, where I’d spent the day fascinated by the colorful shells in the sand. In my excitement, I underestimated the strength of my grocery bag as I packed it full of shells. In the moment, I was devastated that my shells hadn’t survived the fall. Now, I look back on the memory fondly, realizing that I had all the makings of a future marine biologist.”
-- Shell Crazy |
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Cetacean Fascination Jamie Knaub I am a Ph.D. candidate studying the microstructures of skeletal tissue in marine megafauna. Specifically, I examine tiny structures in vertebrae from sharks and cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) to investigate variation along the vertebral column and across species in relation to swimming mode. Now my fascination is with cetaceans from the inside out. |
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Moody but Marvelous Mentor Dr. Michael Salmon I am a Research Professor Emeritus in the FAU Biological Sciences department. I conduct foundational research on sea turtle sensory systems and behavior. |
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Chicken of the Sea Elizabeth Schultheis I am a Masters of Science thesis student studying the effects of harmful fungi in sea turtle nests. Eggs are a topic that has run through my science life to date. |
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Inconvenient InvestiGATOR Schelli Linz I am a Ph.D. candidate studying biomarkers of toxin and toxicant exposure in leatherback sea turtles. And, can we all acknowledge that her first name alone could have been an appropriate pseudonym for a future sea turtle researcher?! |
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Shell Crazy Colleen Hecker I am a Masters of Science thesis student using genetics and morphology (body structures) to accurately identify octopus species that appear nearly identical to one another. Making these positive species identifications helps to prevent cases of mistaken identity in the fisheries sector, which is a major problem globally! |
How did you do? Follow up next month for stories from other scientists!
