Spending the summer of 2024 with the NSF-IRES Costa Rica program, Baylen Ratliff wasn’t just catching rays of sunshine. He spent three weeks in Costa Rica observing estuary rays, exploring coral reef ecology, and recording humpback whale songs. In his senior year at UW, Baylen, shared his four-week research experience with us, including what he worked on, new skills he learned, and how he found out about the opportunity.

In a special end to Autumn Quarter 2024, the FHL Fall Apprentice and Undergraduate Research Annual Symposium (AURAS) was held on Wednesday 4 December, at Friday Harbor Labs – UW’s marine research field station nestled in the Salish Sea. A culminating research symposium, the event showcased the work of participants work from Pelagic Ecosystem Function (PEF) and Autumn Marine Studies (AMS) programs, including many Marine Biology majors.

Awarded the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship for 2024-2026, a key part of this program is a summer internship with a NOAA lab. Megan Cosand’s 2025 summer internship will be studying the phenology of two large jellyfish species in Skagit Bay, which is roughly an hour’s drive north of the UW Seattle campus.

One of two UW Marine Biology students who were chosen as NOAA Hollings Scholars for 2024-2026, the next step for Hannah Tucker was to apply for her 2025 summer internship. Taking place over 10 weeks, Hannah’s internship will be exploring the future of fishery-independent surveys in the northeast in Woods Hole, Massachusetts (MA). We caught up with Hannah about how she chose the internship, what it will involve, and what she’s most looking forward to regarding the experience.

Hundreds of thousands of US students take part in study abroad programs each year, earning credits towards their degrees while immersing themselves in different cultures around the globe. For Isabella Robinson, a third year student majoring in Marine Biology and French with a QSCI minor, a study abroad program took her to a much warmer and saltier sea than the Puget Sound which neighbors the University of Washington…The Mediterranean Sea.

Chris Mantegna (Marine Biology ’21) features in a new Be Boundless story by the University of Washington. Joining our program as a transfer student, and now a graduate student in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Chris’ story is an inspiring one. Read all about what led her to UW, her passion for the marine environment, and her dedication to making marine science more inclusive and accessible to others.

In November 2024, Marine Biology student, Mollie Ball, gave her first research presentation at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science’s (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM Conference in Phoenix, and clinched the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation award.

In a new episode of the UW College of the Environment’s FieldSound, Aisha Rashid, a recent graduate of both the Marine Biology and Oceanography programs, shares her experience aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson, her current work with Wild Orca researching Southern Resident killer whales, and her capstone research as a double major. 

What’s Fall Quarter like when studying Marine Biology at Friday Harbor Labs? Find out in our latest social media takeover with Ellie!

From transferring in to UW, and discovering the geosciences through GEODUC, we spoke to Mollie Ball about her experience becoming a scientist. Seizing research opportunities and building her community within GEODUC, Mollie’s student profile highlights her first-generation, transfer student journey while sharing advice for other undergraduates.