People

Trainees - Cohort 5

Gal Koss

  • PhD Student, Agriculture and Resource Economics
Gal earned a bachelor's degree in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2014 and a master's in Agriculture and Resource Economics from Colorado State University in 2021. She is interested in issues of marine resources and coastal cities, and generally in how people make decisions under climate change and uncertainty.

Serina Moheed

  • PhD student, Graduate Group in Ecology
Serina received her bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences, with a minor in Infectious Disease Biology, from Cornell University in 2020. Since then, she has been working on human infectious diseases as a Research Technician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Recognizing the interconnectedness of human and ocean health, Serina is pursuing a PhD in ecology to understand the effect of future climate events on the number and severity of marine disease outbreaks, particularly in vulnerable coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows.

Jennifer Paige

  • PhD Student, Graduate Group in Applied Mathematics
Jennifer received her bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Educational studies from Swarthmore College in 2022. She is interested in how modeling, computation, and data analysis techniques can help understand and protect vulnerable marine systems, especially with respect to the impacts of climate change. She aims to help with practical implementation of this knowledge through policy solutions that address conservation issues and make this knowledge more accessible to the communities it affects through outreach.

Gabby Yang

  • PhD Student, Graduate Group in Ecology
Gabby received her B.S. in Environmental Biology from Cal Poly Pomona with her research focusing on analyzing stereo-video data to quantify Z. flavescens abundance inside and out of protected areas in Hawaii. Her current research interests centers on utilizing her experience as an ecologist to better understand environmental policy and decision-making to improve the management of our oceans and their ecosystem services.

Sustainable Oceans Scholars - 2023

Maggie Dillon

  • MS Student California State Polytechnic University
Maggie Dillon is a Master’s student in Dr. Jeremy Claisse’s lab in the Biological Science department at Cal Poly Pomona. Her thesis uses video footage from remote operated vehicles to assess how fish use subsea pipelines off oil rigs as habitat in comparison to rocky reef and sandy bottom habitats. She hopes the results of her thesis work will be used to help inform State and Federal policy decisions surrounding the decommissioning of petroleum pipelines in California.

Roxanne-A Garibay

  • MS student, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory - San Jose State University
Roxanne is a second year Marine Science student in Dr. Graham’s Phycology Lab. After completing her B.S. in Biology and minor in Spanish from UCLA, she worked for a medical non-profit in South America. She shifted gears when returning to the U.S. and worked at aquatic and animal rehabilitation institutions including the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Currently, Roxanne’s research is focused on giant kelp’s acute physiological response to biomass loss after kelp forest disturbances. She is investigating the reproductive and growth responses following biomass loss. Roxanne is also active in different student groups facilitating marine science education and collaboration.

Sergio Madrigal-Mora

  • MS student, California State University, Long Beach
Sergio is originally from Costa Rica and moved to California to do his master’s with Dr. Chris Lowe’s at the Shark Lab. His research focuses on the movement and aggregation behavior of  endangered Pacific nurse sharks and their use of a marine protected area in the north Pacific of Costa Rica. With this project Sergio aims to obtain fundamental biological knowledge for the species that can inform future management and conservation through its distribution in the tropical Pacific coast of Latin America.

Luke Townsend

  • MS Student, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Luke Townsend is currently a master’s student in Dr. Scott Hamilton’s Ichthyology Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. For his thesis research, Luke is investigating Monkeyface Pricklebacks (Cebidichthys violaceus) for finfish aquaculture by conducting an alternative feed study along with a temperature range experiment. The results of his research would determine if Monkeyface Pricklebacks are a suitable alternative species for freshwater eels in seafood dishes.

Sustainable Oceans Scholars - 2022

Robert Dellinger

  • MS Student, California State University, Northridge, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership Fellow
Robert Dellinger is currently a Master’s student at California State University in the Biology Department studying marine ecology. Rob is interested in studying the interactive effects of ocean acidification and warming by assessing the physiological responses of marine organisms to future climate change scenarios. His aim is to exemplify how organismal-level interactions may amplify or reduce the effects of ecological change, as each organismal function uniquely scales up to affect different ecosystem functions.

Brandon Quintana

  • MS student, Biological Science department at California State University, Fullerton.
Brandon Quintana is currently a master’s student in the Biological Science department at California State University, Fullerton. For his thesis, he is currently studying how biomass and condition index of filter feeders are responding to different factors such as sedimentation as well as eelgrass and filter feeder density in a living shoreline setting. The goal of his research is to use the results of the study to inform restoration management and better protect coastal communities while increasing habitat and biodiversity.