Dr. Whitman 
Dr. Schweikert 
C. Knauer 
J. Quinlan 
S. Hackerott 
M. van Zinnicq Bergmann 
S. Luongo
We are pleased to announce the seven recipients of the Center for Coastal Oceans Research (CCOR) travel awards for the early 2019 period. CCOR faculty, post-docs, students and staff are engaged in great research all around the world. For this round of travel awards, there were winning applications for support in six countries or territories, from the Florida Keys to Madagascar.
According to Jim Fourqurean, the Director for CCOR, there were twice as many applicants as the amount of money available for support.
“Funds to support these awards is generated by indirect charges to grants that gets returned to the Center – so the more successful we are at bringing in grants that generate overhead, the more funds we will have to feed back into our research programs,” he said in an e-mail.
Each winner has received a $500 travel award for travel related to marine research. The travel award funds can be used to cover any legitimate expense related to field research or the presentation of CCOR research at conferences and meetings. If the award is made in support of field research, then expenses related to the research itself (materials, supplies, fees, etc) can be covered. The CCOR travel award is given every 6 months. Learn more about this session’s winners below:
Serena Hackerott, a PhD student in Dr. Eirin-Lopez’ lab, to study the application of environmental epigenetic approaches to improve coral reef conservation in Bonaire.
Courtney Knauer, a PhD student in Dr. Heithaus’ lab, to investigate the behavioral ecology of hawksbill turtles in Madagascar.
Sarah Luongo, a PhD student in Dr. Papastamatiou’s lab, to study the energetics of Nassau grouper in Cape Eleuthra, the Bahamas.
Jessica Quinlan, a PhD student in Dr. Chapman’s lab, to study the population structure and habitat use by sharks in Belize.
Dr. Lorian Schweikert, a postdoc in Dr. Bracken-Grissom’s lab, to support a project investigating the link between skin photosensitivity and dynamic camouflage in hogfish at the Keys Marine Lab.
Maurits van Zinnicq Bergmann, a PhD student in Dr. Papastamatiou’s lab, to investigate the habitat and space use of sharks in Bimini, the Bahamas.
Dr. Elizabeth Whitman, a postdoc in the Heithaus lab, to present the talk “Large grazer foraging habitat use and resource selection is affected by the invasive seagrass, Halophila stipulacea, in the French West Indies” at the 2019 ASLO meeting in Puerto Rica.
Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to the awards committee for their effort! To learn more about the CCOR Travel Awards, click here.
