Hi y’all, I’m Laurel!
Like a lot of kids, I wanted to become a marine biologist when I grew up. Now, I’m making it happen! Ever since I can remember, I have always had a passion and interest in our planet’s underwater world. I find myself becoming more and more enamored with it every single day. As marine biologists, we have some of the most complex, interesting, and exciting jobs in the STEM field (although I may be a little biased). It’s not every day that you get to live your childhood dream, and I am so incredibly grateful to get to do so.

I am currently a PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles in Dr. Mónica Medina‘s lab. While I am still in my first year and working on forming my dissertation chapters, I will be studying the regulation pathway of biomineralization in Orbicella spp. and differential gene expression of this process across different developmental phases and in corals faced with disease.

Before starting at UCLA, I completed my Master’s at California State University, Northridge, where I worked with Dr. Nyssa Silbiger’s Quantitative Marine Ecology Lab. To read my master’s thesis, click here and feel free to reach out with questions! The work from my Master’s is currently in review for publication at Limnology and Oceanography.

In exciting news, I was awarded the 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! To learn more about the NSF GRFP, check out their website here.