I am currently a 3rd year undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island, studying Marine Biology and Aquaculture and Fisheries Science. I joined the lab in Spring 2026 and have been enjoying research with the team.
What made you decide to go into marine science?
I have to give credit to my grandfather for shaping my interests at such an early age. Living on an island off the coast of Scotland, he would take me fishing out on his boat every time I came to visit, instilling a sense of curiosity in me that has persisted into adulthood. There’s something mysterious about the ocean, and I find the fact that it is largely unexplored to be very exciting.
What is the focus of your research/work? What do you think is the most important takeaway from your research?
My work mostly involves processing and analyzing data collected by our landers. I use lander data to create time series of oceanographic variables, while annotating images and videos with environmental or biological characteristics. Recently, I have been focused on aligning numerical and visual data to form conclusions about the health and diversity of deep sea coral reef communities.
What is the coolest thing you’ve done through your work?
I got the opportunity to go on a 2 week research cruise in the Gulf of America (formerly Mexico) with Dr. Davies, where we deployed one of our landers 3 times for some high frequency data collection. It was really cool to spend all summer preparing the lander and then get to actually deploy it myself. I also enjoyed getting to collaborate with other scientists in the field and learning from their research.
What is one fun fact about you?
I like listening to music, and I play drums, guitar, and bass.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
I seem to get injured in pretty stupid ways pretty often, so I think invulnerability would be a nice superpower to have.