Students
MSc student
Jonathan Burnap is from Richmond, Virginia, and a graduate of Virginia Tech with a bachelor's in environmental science. He is studying how different coral reef fish species' tolerances are when it comes to the combined pressure of warming and low oxygen. He is monitoring the reef fish of La Parguera and running lab-based physiology assays to provide novel data that will set the stage for us to understand what aspects of reef fish communities are going to deteriorate first with continued extreme ocean weather. He is also very much at home underwater and likes to spend his free time outdoors by running, golfing, hiking, and more.
MSc Student
Carolina César Ávila is originally from La Chorrera, Panama, and has a background in Marine Biology from the International Maritime University of Panama. Before joining the lab in August 2025, Carolina worked as a Research Technician in the Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute, Bocas del Toro, for the Marine GEO Network. Carolina is passionate about coral reef ecosystems; her research interest explores how compound extreme events affect coral physiology. She enjoys diving, photography, longboarding, birdwatching, and spending time with her cat in her free time.
MSc Student
Mariela Cortes Medina graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez with a bachelor's in biology. Previously, she's worked with the Laboratorio de Ecología y Conservación de Vida Silvestre helping with different projects. In her free time, she enjoys doing crafts, having creative projects and spending time in nature from river and beach days to hikes. Her research interests focus on marine conservation in macro-organisms and ecology.
MSc Student
Marine Science Student at the University of Puerto Rico who looks forward to doing marine research in the future. Planning to live in Europe someday.
Project: Fish Embryo Tolerance of Heat and Hypoxia
-By exposing fish embryos (Red Snapper) to heat over time as well as hypoxia over time in two different stages of life, we can determine the threshold of temperature increases within the ocean that these fish can tolerate before mass die-offs start occurring. Important information to know for measuring our priorities in climate action.