Carlyn Scott, College of Marine Science
The USF College of Marine Science welcomed students, faculty, and guests for its 42nd annual Graduate Student Symposium on Friday, January 16, continuing a long-standing tradition of showcasing student-led research. The symposium serves as a platform for graduate students to present their work through oral and poster sessions and engage with the broader community.
This year鈥檚 program began with a keynote talk from alumna Rebecca Scott, who reflected on how her graduate training prepared her for her current role as a program officer with the .
Throughout the day, students presented research from all six concentrations of study offered at the college: biological, geological, chemical, physical, hydrography, and marine resource assessment. Projects explored topics such as contaminants of emerging concern in Tampa Bay and the composition of microbial communities in the Southern Ocean, highlighting the diversity of research conducted at the college.
鈥淭he Graduate Student Symposium highlights the breadth of our research enterprise,鈥� said Tom Frazer, professor and dean of the College of Marine Science. 鈥淭he presentations themselves reflect a commitment to rigorous science in support of a more general goal to advance our understanding of the global ocean.鈥�
View the Spring 2026 - USF Graduate Student Symposiums (GSS) videos on YouTube
Oral presentations
Lilianna Giuffrida: 鈥淯ntangling the impacts of bacterial interactions and changing environmental conditions in the growth and toxin production of Pyrodinium bahamense鈥�
Siria Munoz: 鈥淪ubsurface temperature and coastal ocean circulation influencing tropical cyclone rapid intensification as revealed by 27 years of moored observations鈥�
Jill Thor: 鈥淒oes resolution matter? Modeling groundfish bioclimatic envelopes across multiple spatiotemporal scales鈥�
Anthony Gross: 鈥淐haracterization of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) from wastewater effluent and remediation via iron and aluminum electrocoagulation鈥�
Margaret Hanley: 鈥淗idden landscapes: Seafloor geomorphology on the Sabrina Coast Shelf, East Antarctica鈥�
Alexis Mitchem: 鈥淎nalyzing seasonal spawning patterns of fishes on the West Florida Shelf through DNA barcoding of fish eggs鈥�
Layne Leggett: 鈥淭he Barnacle Baseline Project: Assessing contaminants of emerging and known concern within Tampa Bay using Acorn Barnacles鈥�
Brad Nemeth: 鈥淎 time-of-flight lidar fluorometer for depth-resolved chlorophyll fluorescence and particulate backscatter in the water column鈥�
Poster presentations
Beatriz Alejandra Aguilar Enriquez: 鈥淨uantifying uncertainty in soil organic carbon stock estimates in Southwest Florida Mangroves鈥�
Logan Dudney: 鈥淭esting the hypothesis of the Loop Current forced upwelling on the West Florida Shelf using the long-term moored observations鈥�
Isabella Iannotta: 鈥淓xamining sedimentary organic matter before and after a deep-sea mining test in the central Pacific鈥�
Hallie Repeta: 鈥淧robabilistic approaches for modeling diet variation and trophic connectivity in marine ecosystems鈥�
Olivia Blondheim: 鈥淓valuating the ecosystem services of oysters on natural substrates and an experimental oyster restoration tool in Tampa Bay鈥�
Emma Graves: 鈥淚nvestigating microbial composition in the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific Gyre鈥�