Fisheries students sweep four of six awards at Alaska Marine Science Symposium

Submitted by Carin Bailey Stephens
Phone: 907-322-8730
01/29/08

At last week’s Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage, more than 600 state, national and international scientists gathered to share their knowledge of marine issues in Alaska waters. There were nearly 100 presentations given at the Symposium, with sixteen presented by students.

All student presentations and posters were entered into a Symposium-wide contest for the best student presentations and best student posters.

Four of the six award winners are graduate students studying fisheries at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Juneau Center.

Katie Palof, a master’s degree student studying the genetics of Pacific Ocean perch with Tony Gharrett, received an award for a presentation on her thesis work.

Lisa Kamin is also a master’s degree student studying the genetics of Pacific Ocean perch with Tony Gharrett. Kamin earned the award for best poster for a master’s level student.

Joel Webb earned an award for his poster on developing biological reference points for easter Bering Sea crab. Webb is a Ph.D. student working with Ginny Eckert and Gordon Kruse.

Cindy Tribuzio is working on her Ph.D. with Gordon Kruse. She is studying spiny dogfish and received an award for her oral presentation.

Alaska Sea Grant provided $250 each for the winning master’s student and Ph.D. student poster. The North Pacific Research Board offered $250 each for the best two master’s level and best two Ph.D. level oral presentations.

One of the six awards was received by Steffen Oppel, a Ph.D. student in UAF’s Department of Biology and Wildlife. Oppel presented a talk on using stable isotopes to track seabirds in the Bering Sea region.

On the Web: See the winning posters and learn more at www.sfos.uaf.edu