Caitlyn P
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of Southern California (USC)
Expertise
biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, marine microbiology
Bio
Hi! I'm Caitlyn, and I'm working on my Ph.D. in Marine and Environmental Biology. As an aspiring marine biogeochemist (think biology + geology + chemistry!), I ask questions like, "What are the distributions of elements in the oceans?" and "How do microbes impact the nitrogen cycle?" I spend most of my time thinking about how important nutrients and elements cycle through the oceans and change as they are used by organisms. Day to day, you can find me growing marine cyanobacteria under different conditions in the lab. Outside of my research, I'm passionate about teaching and training the next generation of scientists. My personal hobbies include anything that gets me outside or moving! I love to hike, camp, swim in the ocean, travel, and do yoga. I also love traveling and exploring new parts of town in my free time.Project ideas
Literature Review
Formulate a research question or identify a topic that interests you, and develop the skills to find relevant literature, effectively read scientific papers, and assimilate your findings in an original review paper. This could be anything from researching environmental chemical contaminants (e.g., PFAS, lead, pesticides) to investigating the distribution of ecologically important phytoplankton species.
Leverage Scientific Datasets
There are many publicly available datasets if you'd like to start interpreting and visualizing environmental data! Whether you're interested in microbial gene expression or elemental distributions in the ocean, I can help point you in the right direction to leverage one of the many great datasets available and answer a scientific question. You could present your findings in a paper, presentation, or another kind of visual platform.