What does a summer of marine biology research at Friday Harbor Labs look like? Find out in our latest student blog by Lauren Grady, who takes us through her time during the Marine Conservation Ecology class.

In our FieldNotes feature, the student-run undergraduate journal based in the UW College of the Environment, Claudia Stile wrote about working with the journal during her first year at UW and how it helped build a sense of community.

What’s been happening in the Padilla-Gamiño lab? For our latest student takeover, Kat Arnett joined to share more about her work in coral science and conservation.

Each year, the UW College of the Environment celebrates outstanding students and staff with achievement awards. This year’s Undergraduate Dean’s Medalist has been named as Sarah Hensley, a Marine Biology student in her senior year.

We are pleased to announce that the Marine Geoscience Education, Oceanographic Discovery, Undergraduate Collaboration (GEODUC) Scholars Program Team has been awarded the 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award for Teams by the University of Washington.

Majoring in Marine Biology at UW, Jonas Ecker is also a student-athlete who has recently qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. He will be competing as part of the US Olympic Team, in Men’s K2 500m with his partner Aaron Small, as well as Men’s K1 1000m. We caught up with Jonas about how this journey to the Olympics began, and what he’s most excited for this summer in Paris. 

Every year, UW celebrates the Husky 100, recognizing undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the University of Washington, both inside and outside of the classroom. This year in 2024, two Marine Biology undergraduates have been named as part of the Husky 100 cohort – congratulations to Aisha Rashid and Samantha-Lynn Martinez. Both double majors, Aisha is also majoring in Oceanography and Samantha-Lynn is majoring in Ecology, Evolution, & Conservation Biology. 

In Part 2 of the fourth episode of the “Where Are They Now?” series with Sanna Titus, she speaks about what prepared her for applying to master’s programs, her studies at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs, and how this all tied in to her current career with the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Animal Behaviour.
The series showcases UW’s Marine Biology graduates in their early careers. 

Out of 16,400 university programs at 1,500 institutions in 96 locations around the world, the University of Washington has five subjects in the top 10 in 2024, including Earth and Marine Sciences at number 10. 

Happy first day of spring quarter! I hope you all had a restful spring break and you get some time to see the cherry blossoms today or this week. Around the advising offices, Dani and I are happy to welcome another adviser to our team: Derya Gumustel. Dani is still working online, but she plans to be out soon for about 9 months to welcome a new baby (congrats Dani)!