RTC graduate student, Regina Radan, at Univ. Hawaii for six-week intensive course.

Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC) graduate student, Regina Radan, has been chosen to participate in a six-week intensive course, “Microbial Oceanography: From Genomes to Biomes,” sponsored by the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) and the Agouron Institute. The course, which runs eight hours a day, and seven days a week, includes classroom, laboratory work, and two week-long oceanic research cruises on the R/V Kilo Moana.

The highly competitive program is held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa every summer. Radan is one of only 16 participants chosen from a multi-national pool. Her selection was based on her graduate research at RTC and her “recognized potential in the emerging field of oceanography.”

Ms. Radan and her advisor, Dr. William Cochlan, were thrilled to receive her acceptance letter. Said Dr. Cochlan of his student’s success, “Regina’s acceptance into this prestigious course recognizes her talents as a microbial oceanographer, and reflects extremely well on the graduate training that she has received at SFSU and RTC. This is an incredible opportunity for Regina, by working alongside other marine microbial students and faculty experts from around the world, potential collaborative research partnerships may develop that could last throughout her professional career.”

In the Cochlan Lab at RTC, Ms. Radan has been studying the potential effects of the inorganic and organic nitrogen, and availability of iron on the relative toxicity of the toxigenic diatom species Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries. Understanding diatom toxicity along the coastal waters of the West Coast of the United States and Canada is economically important, as it has serious impacts for both ecosystem health, and commercial, recreational and tribal subsistence shellfish fisheries. Upon completion of her master of science degree, Radan plans to apply for a PhD program, with a potential focus on phytoplankton and trace metals. This course will help her determine her exact area of focus and may help in her choice of institution and/or research advisor.

Radan is tentative about leaving the Cochlan Lab and her on-going research for such an extended period of time, but is excited about gaining experience and learning new molecular techniques from the course instructors, who are some of the top scientists in the field. Radan is also looking forward to interacting with student scientists from other universities, saying, “These students will hopefully be my future colleagues, the potential collaborative research partnerships that develop during this course could last throughout my professional career.”

Regina is in Hawaii from June 25 to August 3.

For more information about Regina Radan and the Cochlan Ecophysiology Lab, please visit http://online.sfsu.edu/~cochlan.