2016 Maureen Keller Students Awards
Alexis Fisher (Oral Presentation)
Best student oral presentation was awarded to Alexis Fischer, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, for her contribution on “Quantifying the chilling requirement for germinability of natural Alexandrium fundyense resting cysts”, co-authored with Michael Brosnahan and her advisor, Donald Anderson. A California-native, Alexis moved to New England to attend Wellesley College, where she graduated with a B.A. in Biology in 2010. After a year working on Vibrio cholerae ecology and evolution as a research technician at the University of Alberta, she returned to New England to begin her PhD on another toxic marine microbe: Alexandrium fundyense. She quickly became immersed in the Anderson laboratory’s intensive field program in the Nauset Marsh system (Cape Cod, MA), where A. fundyense form recurrent blooms. Fascinated by the seasonality of the life cycle of A. fundyense, Alexis began to investigate how environmental and internal factors regulated excystment. Almost 30 years since her advisor discovered the endogenous annual clock in Gulf of Maine cysts, her research now addresses many of the lingering mysteries of cyst dormancy. The work presented quantifies how A. fundyense cysts use the environmental cue of winter chilling to restrict their germination until spring when favorable growth conditions are more likely to be sustained. This chilling response is a mechanism through which A. fundyense, and perhaps many other dinoflagellates, match the timing of germination to their environment, thereby maximizing bloom potential in a variety of temperature regimes and habitats. Currently, she is writing up her dissertation research, which includes experimental, observational, and modeling approaches, and considers how A. fundyense bloom phenology in Nauset may be affected by a changing climate.
Jacqueline Jerney (Poster Presentation)
Jacqueline Jerney, University of Helsinki working at the Finnish Environment Institute – Marine Research Center received the Maureen Keller award for her poster titled: “Genetic diversity of seed banks and seasonal genotype dynamics of Alexandrium ostenfeldii (Dinophyceae) in shallow waters of the Baltic Sea”, co-authored by Conny Sjöqvist, Sanna Suikkanen, Satoshi Nagai and Anke Kremp. Jacqueline was born in Austria, where she grew up and started her academic career. She studied ecology at the University of Vienna, focused on Limnology during her studies and found her passion for phycology on the way. Jacqueline wrote her Master’s thesis about algae turf scrubbers used for restoration of eutrophied waters and graduated in 2012. Afterwards she gained experience in the applied field of algal research at the University of Vienna, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, and the company Erber Future Business in Austria. Doing so, she started missing ecology and basic research, which prompted her to start her PhD in Finland. Currently she is working on her PhD studies, supervised by Anke Kremp and Sanna Suikkanen at the Finnish Environment Institute. The main topic is ecological and evolutionary significance of seed banks for the expansion of phytoplankton blooms in the Baltic Sea.
Marc Long
(Honorary Mentioning)
Marc Long from Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO, France) and University of Wollongong (UOW, Australia) for his contribution to “Allelochemicals released by the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum impact Chaetoceros neogracile photosystem and viability”. Marc undertook his studies in Brest, France, where he obtained a Bachelor in Biology of organisms and populations in 2013 and a Master in Marine Biology in 2015. In parallel with his university cursus, Marc has been working on phytoplankton physiology as a part-time research assistant for nearly 6 years in the laboratory of marine environmental studies (LEMAR, France) under the supervision of Dr Hélène Hégaret and Dr Philippe Soudant. During his cursus, he also undertook overseas internships at the University Of Wollongong (Australia) under the supervision of A/Prof D. Jolley and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, United States) in Milford Connecticut, always working with phytoplankton physiology with Dr Gary H. Wikfors.
The work presented at ICHA2016 were obtained from his first year of PhD and highlighted the impact of the unknown allelochemicals exudated by A. minutum on the diatom Chaetoceros neogracile physiology (primarily investigating at photosystem II and cell membranes) to better understand allelochemicals mode of action. During his PhD Marc aims to characterize the allelopathic activity from the dinoflagellate Alexandrium. To do so Marc has developed a standardized bioassay with algal cells. For the next two year of his PhD project, his main objective will be to further investigate allelochemicals mode of action and to chemically characterize the nature of allelochemicals that may also have other cytotoxic activities.
Suema Branco
(Honorary Mentioning)
Suema Branco was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She joined the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 2006 to do the bachelor of biology. Dr. Mariângela Menezes supervised her academic studies since internship to master and Ph.D. projects. In 2012, Branco obtained her master´s degree in Botany from UFRJ, whose subject of study was the taxonomy, ecology, and toxicity of marine species of Raphidophytes isolated from the Brazilian coast. In 2016 concluded her doctorate at the UFRJ. Her thesis project was on taxonomy and phylogeny of many strains of planktonic marine dinoflagellates isolated from a tropical Brazilian estuary, mainly focusing on the potentially harmful species. In her thesis, she described a new species of Alexandrium, Alexandrium fragae. She is currently a collaborating researcher in the Phycology Laboratory at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro / UFRJ. Her primary interest is the taxonomy of harmful microalgae and the application of molecular tools in these studies.
