Sydney P
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at University of California San Diego (UCSD)
Expertise
Marine microbiology, phytoplankton ecology and physiology, oceanography, marine environmental issues
Bio
As an undergraduate, I studied biology and became involved in marine and medicinal chemistry research. I recently graduated with my PhD in July 2022 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, where I studied ecology and physiology of marine microbes. More specifically, I interrogated the health of marine microscopic algae and how reactive chemicals they release into the their environment can influence interactions with other microbes as well as global cycling of nutrients, carbon, and oxygen. Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher Scripps Institution of Oceanography continuing my research from my PhD and am also teaching Environmental and Oceanic science undergraduates at the University of San Diego. When not in the lab, I love going hiking and camping in southern California (the desert is my sanctuary!), hanging out at the beach or local park, and reading or listening to books. I am eager to mentor students so I can provide and share experiences that have excited me about science!Project ideas
Exploring marine microbe protein trends in the global ocean
In this project, you will learn how marine microbes accomplish tasks with proteins such as metabolizing. Then you will use online databases to see how many and which microbes use a particular protein you are interested in, where they are using this protein, and which environmental factors affect abundance of this protein. For example, if temperature or light affect the abundance of a particular protein, this may mean there could be changes in how microbes use this protein in the future due to climate change.
What triggers phytoplankton blooms off the Southern California coast?
In this project, you will learn what environmental conditions stimulate microscopic algae (aka phytoplankton) blooms off the coast of Southern California. Specifically, you will search through publicly available datasets of environmental physical, chemical, and biological data (such as temperature, nutrient concentrations, algae abundance) collected by scientists and use statistics to identify factors affecting phytoplankton blooms. Data could be presented and discussed in a conference poster or journal publication.