• Marine Biology
• Alumni

Alumni

• Brianna Bowman '10
• Logan Brown '09
• Bridget McCann '09
• Jean Davis '08
• Julie Gee '05
• Liz Terk '04
• Russ Carpenter '00
• Matt Craig '98
• Andy Brooks '84

 

Brianna Bowman '10

I graduated from Oxy with a marine emphasis biology degree in 2010. My experience working in the VRG had a huge influence on my career goals and aspirations, and was definitely one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Since graduating, I’ve tried what I like to think is a little bit of everything under the surprisingly broad term of “marine biology”. I worked for a summer at Taylor Shellfish, an aquacultural company in the southern Puget Sound in Washington State. I also had an internship with NOAA in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, learning about distribution of walleye pollock in the Bering Sea. I then went to New Zealand and helped a Ph.D. student from Otago University with her field work on Hector’s dolphins around Banks Peninsula. After that, I moved to another town in New Zealand called Kaikoura, and managed to get a job being a guide on a boat that takes tourists out to swim with a local wild population of dusky dolphins. While this job didn’t require a marine biology degree, it did make me realize that I really enjoyed talking to people about the marine environment, and I started to think about being in a more education based role. By coincidence, I met another former Otago graduate student named Megan Bosch who was literally starting an aquarium in town – the Kaikoura Marine Aquarium. This year, I am doing an online M.Sc. in science and math education from Oregon State University. This degree is specific to what is known as “Free-Choice Learning”, meaning environments outside of a classroom where people choose to go to learn, like museums, zoos, and aquariums. I hope to use what I learn in this degree to design after school programs, exhibits, and citizen science curricula.

 

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Logan Brown '09

Upon graduation from Oxy, I started working for an Internet gaming company in Marble Falls, TX. My job consisted of traveling throughout east and central Texas servicing computers, building computers, and Internet troubleshooting. I was also in charge of managing each gaming location. After a year in the gaming business, I left for a secondary science teaching position in rural House, NM. I currently teach Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, and Physical Education. I also serve as the track and field coach for both the junior high and high school. I am currently pursuing entrance into graduate school in hopes of earning a MS in Fisheries or Aquaculture.

 

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Bridget McCann '09

Bridget McCann graduated from Occidental College in 2009 with a degree in Biology with a Marine Emphasis. Since graduation, Bridget has worked with Dr. Brock Bernstein on various research projects and reports such as California Ocean Science Trust's "Evaluating Alternatives for Decommissioning California's Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms: A Technical Analysis to Inform State Policy," Santa Clara Watershed monitoring projects, international oil and gas platform decommissioning policy analysis for the Petroleum Institute of Thailand, the Southern California Ocean Observing Program, and SCCWRP Sediment Quality Objectives project.

Bridget has also worked at the Aquarium of the Pacific as a marine mammal husbandry intern, and been a member of the California Wildlife Center marine mammal rescue team since 2007. Bridget is now working as a marine science and policy consultant with Exxon Mobil, helping to restructure their global environmental safety training and procedures for refineries and offshore facilities.

 

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Jean Davis '08

I graduated Oxy with a B.A. in Biology and a marine emphasis. While at Oxy I worked with the Vantuna Research Group and studied abroad in Dunedin, New Zealand for 5 months. Following graduation I returned to New Zealand to obtain my Master’s degree in marine science from the University of Otago. My master’s work with Dr. Steve Wing involved looking at niche partitioning among four fish species common to Fiordland, a series of 15 fjords that span half the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. To gather data for my project I was able to both fish and dive along pristine undeveloped areas of coastline and see hundreds of seabirds including albatross as well as dolphins, killer whales, penguins, fur seals, sea lions and sharks. After finishing my MSc I worked as a marine biology instructor for an experiential summer program for teens called Broadreach, teaching a college level introductory course on marine biology while sailing and SCUBA diving for two 21 day trips on liveaboard catamarans in the Caribbean. Most recently I am beginning a PhD at Griffith University on the Gold Coast of Australia with Dr. Kylie Pitt and Dr. Rod Connolly to look at the importance of nutrient transfer between mangroves and coral reefs in a subtropical embayment and the implications for successful design of marine reserves in the area.

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Julie Gee '05

Julie Gee graduated from Occidental College in 2005 with a degree in Biology.  After graduating Julie was hired as an “aquarist”, or biologist specializing in the husbandry of aquatic and marine animals, at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.  In 2007 Julie moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin to work at the Reiman Aquarium at Pier Wisconsin.  Finally in 2009 Julie was hired by the Georgia Aquarium, the Worlds Largest Aquarium, and the only aquarium in North America displaying whale sharks and manta rays.  Julie specializes in the acquisition and quarantine of boney fishes and elasmobranches as well as syngnathid and coral husbandry.

 

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Liz Terk '04

I graduated from Occidental College in 2004 with a degree in Biology. Following some travel time and volunteer teaching, I became Deputy Director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei (CSP) in the Federated States of Micronesia. After CSP, I pursued a Master's Degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Now I’m back in Pohnpei working for the Micronesia Conservation Trust as their Conservation Program Manager. Some of the exciting things I’m working on are an Adapting to Climate Change toolkit designed to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and local community understanding in the climate field, and supporting projects working to increase the number of and improve the effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Micronesian region. I am looking forward MCT’s upcoming project to make Micronesia the largest shark sanctuary in the world.

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Russ Carpenter '00

I worked for the VRG from 1998-2000. My time in the Vantuna Research Group was AMAZING, and I still look back at it fondly. After I left Oxy, I went to Humboldt State University where I participated in salmonid research in the Lost Coast Range and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, working for the USGS Cooperative Research Unit. I then moved to Uppsala, Sweden, where I received a Masters Degree in comparative physiology, studying the effects of dominance hierarchies on the stress response in Rainbow Trout. I then moved back to the states and began a Ph.D. program in Neuroscience at the University of South Dakota under the tutelage of Dr. Cliff Summers. My work there was focused on the interaction between aggression and social rank on learning and memory in the Rainbow Trout, and also the role of the neuropeptide Corticotrophin Releasing Factor (CRF) in mediating the stress response. Currently I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University in both the Biology and Neuroscience departments, in the lab of Dr. Russell Fernald. I am both an NIH NRSA Fellowship recipient, and a NSF FirstIV Teaching Postdoc. My current research focus is on how the brain changes in response to pubertal development, with specific relevance to the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH1) neurons in the hypothalamus and the role of social hierarchies in this mediating this system. We use an African Cichlid fish species as our model organism (Astatotilapia burtoni), which provides us with an interesting and unique avenue to pursue our research questions. My time working with the VRG was exciting, challenging and rewarding. The research experience I gained from my time at Oxy was invaluable in preparing me for the opportunities that came later in my academic career, and I will always be thankful to Dr. Dan Pondella for helping me strive to be a great scientist and always have fun!!

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Matt Craig '98

Matthew Craig graduated from Occidental College in 1998 with a degree in Biology, and followed in 2000 with his Masters degree, also in Biology. From Oxy, Matt went on to pursue his graduate degree at the Scripps Institution of Oceangraphy where he received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology in 2005. Matt then went on to work as a postdoctoral research at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology where his studies led him on more than a dozen international collecting expeditions throughout the Indo-Pacific region. In 2009, Matt received a faculty appointment at the University of Puerto Rico.

 

 

 

 

 

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Andy Brooks '84

I graduated from Occidental in 1984 with a degree in Biology (Marine Emphasis). Following graduation, I spent two years working as a marine biologist at Oxy for the Vantuna Research Group before earning my master’s degree in Fisheries Biology at the University College of North Wales in the United Kingdom. After another two spent working for the Vantuna Research Group, I earned my PhD in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara. Currently, I am the Director of the Carpinteria Salt Marsh, one of 37 reserves maintained by the University of California’s Natural Reserve System (http://nrs.ucop.edu/), and the Deputy Program Director for the Moorea Coral Reef Long-term Ecological Research site (http://mcr.lternet.edu/), a US National Science Foundation funded research program based on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia. I have taught courses in Oceanology as part of Occidental College’s Summer Oceanology Program, Ichthyology as part of Northeastern University’s Threes Seas Program and both Ecology and Applied Marine Ecology at UC Santa Barbara. My main research interests are centered on the population and community dynamics of marine and estuarine fishes as well as the development of sensor networks for the monitoring of coral reefs. I spend most of my research time studying the fish communities inhabiting the coral reefs surrounding Moorea, but I also conduct research in southern California kelp forests, coastal wetlands and below offshore oil and gas production platforms. I am fortunate to do what I do today in large part because of the personal interactions that I had with the faculty and the excellent quality of the education that I received while at Occidental.