From flipping over rocks in her backyard to pursuing marine biology, Branae’s love for hidden ecosystems has shaped her path as an undergraduate biology student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In the Gignoux-Wolfsohn Lab, she studies coral-algal symbiosis, investigating how different symbiont partnerships influence coral resilience to rising ocean temperatures and bleaching events. Recently certified as an AAUS scientific diver, this award will enable her to collect post-bleaching samples in Belize for her honors thesis and see the reefs she loves studying in person for the first time.

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