Conducting research can be a career-defining opportunity for an undergraduate student. This experience helps build their CV for graduate school, it can open doors to internships and jobs, and many students present their results at international scientific conferences. Recognizing the increasingly critical role that independent research plays in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, each fall BIOS welcomes a cohort of undergraduate interns as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.

Paul Gensbigler, 20, is no stranger to the water, having spent the past two years studying the health of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. A junior majoring in molecular and cellular biology at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Maryland, Gensbigler is researching the microbes that help control nutrient levels in the Bay. However, this January he traded the brackish waters of the northern Chesapeake for the salty waters of the northern Atlantic in a “Hopkins Intersession Abroad” program.

In the U.S. alone, approximately 40 million people receive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exams each year. These procedures use computer-generated radio waves and strong magnets to create detailed 3-D pictures of areas inside the human body, helping doctors diagnose a variety of conditions, such as blood clots, bone infections, or compressed discs in the spine.

In early August, four researchers representing three international scientific and education institutions converged at BIOS to begin field and experimental work for an investigation into coral resilience. Funded by a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation International, Ltd., this research will build on the results of a previous project, supported by the same donor, that highlighted the importance of environmental history in long-term coral survival.

While some students begin high school with solid career goals in mind, others are trying to identify their interests and align them with potential academic majors or occupations. The BIOS Ocean Science Camp (OSC) was created in 2018 to help engage and support this latter group of students. OSC is a snorkel-based summer camp geared toward students between the ages of 12 and 15 who are interested in the ocean, but may not have had previous opportunities to study marine science.

The Bermuda Program, part of BIOS’s Ocean Academy suite of local education programs, has been providing internship opportunities to Bermudian students, aged 18 and older, since 1976. In that time, more than 250 summer internship placements have been provided to young Bermudians. The program pairs students with BIOS faculty and scientific staff, who serve as mentors for participants while they conduct research projects in the fields of marine and atmospheric science.

A recently-awarded grant from Heising-Simons Foundation International, Ltd. (HSFI) will support a three-year study into the ability of corals to respond to thermal stress events, including prolonged periods of warmer-than-usual temperatures known as marine heat waves. By studying multiple reef-building corals in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific, the project aims to determine if there are potential benefits from thermal “stress conditioning” and, if so, to build cellular and molecular profiles of the more stress-tolerant corals.

Adult corals that survive high-intensity environmental stresses, such as bleaching events, can produce offspring that are better suited to survive in new environments. These results from a series of experiments conducted at BIOS in 2017 and 2018 are deepening scientists’ understanding of how the gradual increase of sea surface temperatures and other environmental disturbances may influence future coral generations.

When marine biologists Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley and Tali Mass met at a science conference last June, they bonded over their shared interest in deep-water coral reef research and their specialized scuba diving skills. Both are technical divers, skilled at using equipment called rebreathers—which recycle every breath and incorporate a mix of oxygen, helium, and nitrogen gases—to access corals living at depths of about 100 to 500 feet (30 to 150 meters).