College Students to Present Research Results at MBL Symposium, December 13

Contact: Gina Hebert 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu  

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA—The public is invited to attend a symposium featuring the research results of 22 undergraduate students who are participating in the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Semester in Environmental Sciences (SES) program. The symposium will be held from 8:20 AM to 3:30 PM on Friday, December 13 in the MBL’s Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole.

Students will discuss their independent research projects in 15-minute presentations.  Research topics include acid rain impacts on Cape Cod ponds, evaluation of clean up of Little Pond using oyster cultivation, response of marshes to sea level rise at Plum Island north of Boston, and degradation of oil from the BP Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  A full schedule can be found at mbl.edu/events/2013-ses-symposium/

Now in its seventeenth year, the SES program is designed to immerse undergraduate students in an intensive semester of hands-on ecological science.  Scientists at the MBL’s Ecosystems and Bay Paul Centers serve as faculty for the program and teach not only the fundamentals of ecosystems science, but discuss their current research, which touches on important issues of global change.

In addition to their independent research project, SES students take courses in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems science and participate in a science-writing seminar designed to illustrate how the results of scientific investigations can be effectively transmitted to the public.

More than 60 colleges participating in the MBL consortium in Environmental Science have approved SES for credit. Students from non-affiliated colleges and universities receive credit through Brown University, with which the MBL is affiliated in other academic programs.

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.