Naomi Villiot knew the path to research abroad during a global health crisis wouldn’t be easy or simple. However, “after a great deal of paperwork, navigating canceled flights, virus testing, and isolation for days upon arrival in Bermuda in September, I have been able to continue with my research,” said Villiot, who hails from a small island in France and studies at a British university.

The university student interns at BIOS this fall knew there would be a lot to learn during three months of intense marine and atmospheric science instruction at BIOS. But a Greek dancing lesson was an unexpected surprise.

Kevin Wong grew up in British Columbia, Canada, an area where snowy mountains, deep forests, and a nearby sea suit people like him with a love for the natural world.  He took his enjoyment of the outdoors to college at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, where he intended to study environmental engineering. However, it was after changing majors in his second year—and an auspicious Internet search introduced him to BIOS—that he realized his true passion lay in research aimed at determining the impacts of human activities on the environment.

Sitting in a math lecture at the University of Cambridge in England last winter, Scott Li was focused on the course and completing his term work during his third year in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. That is, until a researcher in the university’s Department of Earth Sciences walked in at the end of the lecture to encourage students to apply for the Cawthorn Cambridge Internship at BIOS.

Outside many homes on Bermuda, curious-looking bottles hang from porches. These are shark oil barometers, homemade devices that for nearly 300 years have been used by islanders who swear that the oil can predict the severity of approaching storms and hurricanes.

Chloe Emerson initially came to BIOS in the fall of 2014 for the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) internship program funded by the National Science Foundation.  As a Wellesley College senior working to complete her major in Biology and minor in Philosophy, Emerson already found developmental biology and stem cell research fascinating. At BIOS, these interests crystalized as she began to study sea urchins in Andrea Bodnar’s Molecular Discovery Laboratory, leading her down a path in regenerative biology that she hardly could have imagined two years ago.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic cancelled many in-person education experiences worldwide in 2020, but last fall the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at BIOS proceeded with strict quarantine measures and social distancing procedures in place, in accordance with Bermuda Government guidelines.

In 1989, BIOS was still known as the Bermuda Biological Station for Research and its logo was an angelfish surrounded by a concentric ring of nautical rope. Back then, the Institute’s research vessel was Weatherbird II, acquired that year to support the increased use associated with the open-ocean research and equipment testing for which BIOS became known. And when biologist and educator Dr. Edward F. MacNichol, Jr. made a generous gift in memory of his parents, the MacNichol Fund was established, allowing the Institute to recruit talented young scientists to establish their own independent research programs. The first hire was Fred Lipschultz, then a postdoctoral student and biological oceanographer from Harvard University, who arrived in September 1989.

The latest Scientist Selfie video, promoted by the National Science Foundation (NSF), features BIOS Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) intern Jerry Goss and his studies of plankton with BIOS ecologist Leocadio Blanco-Bercial.

When the ongoing pandemic scuttled Maya Leighton’s plans this fall to attend a university overseas, she instead enrolled for a year at Bermuda College. There, a professor noted Leighton’s commitment to marine sciences and suggested a unique opportunity. How about spending Saturdays at BIOS, learning about coral reefs, marine microplastics, plankton, and mangrove restoration on island?