Jazzing up the Summer!
By Professor Billie J. Swalla, Director of FHL
The air at FHL is getting crisp with Fall! The Autumn quarter began on September 30, with students arriving for the Marine Biology Quarter and the Pelagic Ecosystem Function Research Apprenticeship. Before we lose all thoughts of fair weather, let me walk you through our summer here. As usual, it was busy and productive. We hosted six summer courses and two workshops, with an amazing new crop of students who came to experience marine research and left with an enriching experience that we hope they'll remember the rest of their lives.
The Fernald lab building which has served FHL for over 50 years was under construction this January-June as the salt- and freshwater plumbing under the cement floor was updated. Long time FHL researcher Mary Rice remembers working in Fernald when it first opened in 1961 as a lab to be used in the summer only. That was also the first year that a new, young Assistant Professor named Eugene Kozloff taught Marine Invertebrates at FHL. Mary was here again this summer, making it her 55th year at the Labs: an amazing record of marine research! The construction crew pulled down the construction tape as the first of our summer researchers rolled in. Finding equipment and getting all of our sea tables and tanks up and running was a challenge, but now we are enjoying a clean and functioning Fernald basement for our researchers and staff to work in.
The 15th annual Jazz at the Labs took place in August and as usual it was a magical night of wonderful food, FHL friends and supporters, and Jazz music. The San Juan Jazz Quintet, featuring FHL’s former Director Dr. Dennis Willows, was the first act of the evening. Then Seattle's Jazz Coalescence took the stage, with Professor Chris Amemiya artfully playing the trombone. We are so thankful for our many FHL supporters and the Jazz at the Labs sponsors. The funds raised for the FHL Student Outreach Program benefit everyone on San Juan Island in some way: the K-12 students get to interact with FHL scientists and see how science is done, the scientists get to see their work in a new light through the eyes of children, and our community is stronger and more vibrant through this continuing education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Our connection with the San Juan Island schools is strengthened with Derek Smith, an FHL graduate student, taking over as Director of the STEM center at Friday Harbor High School and Tim Dwyer, an FHL alum who is teaching at Spring Street International School.
Two of FHL's grad students are now Ph.D.s! Joe Bizzarro and Stephanie Crofts were both in Adam Summers' lab. The title of Stephanie's thesis is "The Functional Morphology of Hard-Prey Crushing Teeth," and she's moved on to a post-doc position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She's working with Brooke Flammang, looking at the evolution of tails in secondarily marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs, etc. Joe Bizzarro's thesis is titled “Comparative Resource Utilization in Eastern North Pacific Skate Assemblages with Applications for Fisheries Management,” and he's taken a post-doc position with the Fisheries Ecology Division of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, California. He is working with Mary Yoklavich and the Habitat Ecology Team to determine spatial associations and trophic relationships of West Coast groundfishes, including research to inform species-specific management plans for skates.
One of the highlights of the summer was the UW Foundation Board’s Deep Dive in August. Directors from the UW Foundation Board, now President Cauce, and UW staff came to FHL to see research and teaching in action. Thanks to the FHL faculty and students who showcased the great research conducted at Friday Harbor Laboratories, the group went away with thoughts of ocean acidification and fish swimming in their heads, as they contemplated all of the new things that they learned. We were thrilled to have them visit. We were also pleased to have FHL featured on the UW Home Page for a week, beginning in September. If you haven’t yet watched the great video linked at the bottom of the sidebar, please take the time to do it right now!
The FHL Ocean Observatory is moving forward, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (FSML) grant with Ken Sebens (PI) and co-PIs Emily Carrington, Alex Gagnon, Danny Grunbaum, and Billie Swalla. This is a project in collaboration with UW Oceanography and APL (Applied Physics Lab). Kristy Kull is coordinating the ordering and logistics that will be necessary to complete this project. There are plans for a deep-water monitoring site and a shallow-water monitoring site, with equipment continuously recording environmental conditions in seawater. After much discussion, we are ready to purchase instruments and authorize APL to begin work on the interface box and the software to convert and transmit data from each type of instrument. Once the equipment is received, we’ll need to build the platforms and eventually get everything in the water to begin collecting environmental data. Stay tuned for more plans!
We continue to work to fill the places of FHL retirees David Duggins, Craig Staude, and Vikky Dauciunas. Fortunately we're still graced with their presence as they help here and there with various projects. We have also just learned that our Administrator Scott Schwinge is leaving us at the end of this year, so stay tuned for those party plans! We want to thank Scott for his many years dedicated to FHL.
Thanks to you all who make Friday Harbor Laboratories a great place to visit, to work, to learn and to do research!! Your input and energy are very much appreciated.
