Diving into research��

The internship offered Moya a comprehensive and immersive experience in marine biology. She spent her time doing fieldwork, including boat surveys for population monitoring, acoustic monitoring throughout the Sarasota Bay, fishing to study dolphin distribution and their prey, and gaining skills in photo identification. These hands-on experiences offered a realistic glimpse into the life of a marine biologist.��

“To thrive in this environment, it’s essential to have a growth mindset—being open to change, willing to explore new interests, and understanding that your passions may evolve,” Moya said. “You might discover that something you expected to love isn’t quite the right fit or unexpectedly fall in love with a new area of study.”��

The SDRP challenges students to grow as scientists through real-world research and offers ongoing opportunities to volunteer in diverse projects—from necropsies and offshore acoustic receiver deployments to sea turtle hatchling releases and collaborating with shark researchers.��

“At SDRP, you’re encouraged to be curious, ask questions, read scientific literature, and learn from both successes and mistakes,” Moya said. “Ultimately, the experience is what you make of it—so be a sponge, soak up every opportunity, and allow yourself to grow both personally and professionally.”

Learning beyond the science

Being a scientist means more than just doing science: it requires confidence, courage, resilience, and most importantly, a willingness to face the unknown and embrace failure as part of the journey. These are the traits that have sustained SDRP’s legacy for 55 years and enabled it to produce pioneering research for marine mammals.��

By continuing to take bold steps driven by curiosity and ambition, SDRP has helped lay the foundation for marine mammal conservation and inspired generations of scientists to follow.��

In analyzing the behavior and health of small cetaceans, Moya noted that when dolphins are together, they’re not called pods; they’re called communities.

“The bottlenose dolphins are just like us—living creatures who are curious, trying to survive, and remarkably intelligent with developed communication skills that help expand their complex social structures,” said Moya. “Bottlenose dolphins are self-aware and able to recognize one another through signature whistles.”��

Dolphins serve as vital indicators of the health of the world’s oceans. They play a key role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems, help control fish populations, help maintain water quality, and keep the food chain in balance.��

“Their sensitivity to environmental changes makes them sort of like our ocean security guards for detecting issues like pollution and disease, or even with incidents of algal blooms like red tide, which occurred in 2021 throughout the Sarasota Bay,” said Moya. “However, when dolphins are in trouble, it can be a serious sign that our oceans may be at risk too.”

Exploring the opportunities

�������ý��Ƶ students are encouraged by faculty and staff to take on internships to expand their understanding, build relationships, and strengthen their overall career path.��

“‘Ride my wave’—that’s something my mom always tells me, and it’s become a grounding mantra throughout my college journey,” Moya said. “It reminds me to stay present and embrace each moment, whether it’s challenging or joyful. The tough times are temporary, and the good ones pass quickly too—so it’s important to appreciate them while they last.” This perspective has shaped not only how Moya moves through tough moments, but also how she approaches the future.��

“Even when the wave you’re riding knocks you down, you get back on the board and catch the next wave. That mindset is guiding me as I work toward graduate school in marine mammal research while staying open to new opportunities that may come my way.”

If you ask questions along the way, Fleshman said, you can learn a little—or a lot—about colors, art, and why things look or feel or react as they do. She encouraged those in the audience to think about times they’ve had certainty on a particular topic, then ponder what else they might explore. Embrace your curiosity, she said.

She suggested people apply that the next time they are walking on Main Hall Green and see vibrant colors in the roses or tulips. Remember what you just learned about the role electrons play in creating those colors, she said.

“Or the next time you see a rainbow,” she said, “I’d like you to think, ‘Oh wow, that’s refraction.’ You got light hitting an interface and the refractive index of water separating that light out is giving you a rainbow. And that you picked up from learning about paint drying.”

Fleshman ended her talk by noting that paint doesn’t actually dry in the way we think it does; it cures. Paint curing is a chemical process, one that takes time, so be patient while celebrating the science behind it, she said. And on that note, she played “The Waiting” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a band she loves almost as much as chemistry.

The Honors Convocation, the third of three annual convocations during the academic year, also featured a beautiful piano selection from senior Benjamin Keating.

Faculty and staff were recognized for annual awards: The Babcock Award for outstanding service to students (voted on by students) to Nicole Schultz for her work as a custodian; Mortar Board Honorary Award to Claudena Skran, Edwin & Ruth West Professor of Economics and Social Science and professor of government; University Award for Excellence in Advising to Matthew Stoneking, Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics; and First-Year Studies Teaching Award to Sarah Gamalinda, assistant professor of French and Francophone studies.

“We can all take great pride in these students, faculty, and staff and the many ways they have enriched our community,” President Laurie A. Carter said. “Thank you for your leadership, and congratulations on your impressive accomplishments.”

LUMP has provided a hands-on undergraduate experience in marine biology every other year since 1978, when the late Sumner Richman launched the program. Students spend time during “Marine Term” learning about coral reef ecosystems, ecology, and human effects on reef environments before embarking on the two-week research trip to the Caribbean.��

In a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the marine program and the Conservatory of Music, Encarnación joined the trip to study the music of Bonaire while also accompanying students on daily dives and related ecosystem explorations. That led to the idea for the Memorial Chapel performance, which will feature the LU Jazz Band performing music related to the ocean and Bonaire’s Krioyo musical tradition. Within the program, De Stasio and Piasecki will discuss the marine program and students will give brief reports on their research projects while photos and video from the trip are shown. It is free and open to the public.

De Stasio, who has led these research trips since 1996, said Encarnación, a native of Puerto Rico and an experienced scuba diver, provided an opportunity to fuse the coral reef research with the culture of the Bonaire community.

“We always try to make this trip more holistic,” De Stasio said. “We want our students to understand how the coral reefs are really a part of the society that’s there. In my Coral Reef Environments course, we always read about how corals are used by local populations, the differences across the world, how different peoples depend on coral reefs and what their long-term relationships are like. So, we always try to have someone local prepare the cultural foods that are so important to them, using local resources, and talk about their culture, the music that’s part of that. When I talked to José, I thought, this is a great opportunity to really extend that even further, to have José do some research on that and have our students experience this culture in a deeper way.”

Seeking data

�������ý��Ƶ’s marine biology program is one of only seven of its kind in the country, and many students are drawn to �������ý��Ƶ specifically for the program. The Bonaire trip is part of De Stasio’s course,��Coral Reef Environments, which is a centerpiece of what’s known as “Marine Term.”

Emma Moya, a sophomore biology major from Chicago, called the program “impactful” and said the Bonaire experience solidified her plans to pursue marine biology as a career—in ocean advocacy as well as research.

“Marine Term made me more motivated than I was before on working toward my career goals,” Moya said. “It became even more of an obsession of wanting to spend more time in the ocean, wanting to continue research on corals and marine mammals, to pursue outreach while ensuring that communities from all over are involved; that these communities are aware of the power they carry to help our oceans.”

Governed by the Netherlands, Bonaire is one of three islands off the coast of Venezuela called��the ABC Islands, with nearby Aruba and Curaçao. This marked the second time Bonaire has been the destination for the Marine Term trip. It replaced Grand Cayman as the destination in 2022 as the world began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It worked out really well,” De Stasio said.

The first week in Bonaire was focused on gathering data of fish and coral diversity at seven sites. During the second week, students worked in small groups on research projects of their own design.

A disease outbreak affecting hard corals in the region, first detected a year ago, added new weight to the research. The Bonaire government, which operates a marine park system that protects the waters around the island, connected with the �������ý��Ƶ group in hopes that the research can contribute to a data base that will shed light on the disease and its ramifications, De Stasio said.

“We now have documentation of before and after this disease outbreak,” he said. “There are some big differences there already. We have this comparison of the same sites over this period of a year before and a year after. This disease is hitting the corals, and it happens within a month, killing off these massive coral heads that took hundreds of years to grow.”

A cultural lesson

When not diving, the group explored Bonaire, including the local music that had the attention of Encarnación. They attended Dia di Rincon, an annual event that celebrates Bonaire’s cultural heritage with food, music, and dancing, and Encarnación took lessons in the music.

“Beautiful, happy, and exciting musical traditions,” he said.

In preparation for the trip, Encarnación audited two courses—Coral Reef Environments and Ecological Energetics—took a refresher course in diving and joined De Stasio and Piasecki in getting certified in CPR and First Aid.

“This has been one of the most remarkable experiences of my life,” Encarnación said. “I learned so much.”

LUMP is an extension of other marine-related study in �������ý��Ƶ’s Biology Department. In combination with a course on microbiology and studies of local aquatic ecosystems, students investigate the similarities and differences between marine and freshwater environments. Besides Bonaire, LUMP has studied reefs in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Cayman Islands.��Nearly 350 �������ý��Ƶ students have taken part in the marine program over the past four decades.

A year ago, seven students from the research trip signed up for tutorials with De Stasio to continue their study.

“We have students who come to �������ý��Ƶ because we have this program,” De Stasio said. “That has been consistent throughout the years.”

Bunch is also graduating from �������ý��Ƶ with a minor in art history, and she challenges the idea that her studies in art and astronomy are far removed from each other. She believes popular culture and representations of space exploration are essential for scientists to consider.

“A lot of people’s first experience with space is through art,” Bunch said. “Movies, superhero comics, even music videos with people as aliens—I think if we look to art, we can understand what people want from space. Artists have pushed this wonderful idea of space, and now we have to go explore and see if it really is that cool.”

Bunch isn’t sure where her career will take her yet, but the possibilities are vast.

“I’d love to go to space; I’d love to be an astronaut,” she said. “Mostly I’m excited to be around other people who are asking the same questions as me and asking questions related to those questions.”

The Goldwater Scholarship Program, one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships, seeks to identify, encourage, and financially support college sophomores and juniors who show promise of becoming the next generation of research leaders in natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

“This scholarship is valuable to me in that it will support my undergraduate studies while providing me with the opportunity to connect with other Goldwater Scholars as I prepare for the next stage of my education,” Carpenter said.

Claire Kervin, assistant professor of English and director of fellowships advising, worked with Carpenter to prepare his application.

“The Goldwater Scholarship recognizes Joseph’s impressive academic accomplishments and his outstanding potential to become a leader in scientific research,” Kervin said.

In 2019, Willa Dworschack ’20, a physics major from Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, was named a Goldwater Scholar. She was doing research in atomic and molecular optics.

In 2020, Travis Dillon ’21, a mathematics major, earned the Goldwater honor for his significant math research both on and off campus.

Sedlock joined the �������ý��Ƶ faculty in 2002. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Loyola University. She earned her Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from the University of Illinois.

We caught up with her to talk about interests in and out of the classroom.

In the classroom

Inside info:��What’s one thing you want every student coming into your classes to know about you?

I’d like students to know that doing creative work and sharing it is scary for me, too. Often, my mind wants to convince me that other scientists, artists, writers, whatever, just wake up in the morning with complete confidence in the fact that they are going to crush it that day—develop a novel and fundable hypothesis, write a poignant and award-winning poem, or deliver a presentation without a hitch. Occasionally, I allow myself a vulnerable moment and confess to a colleague that fear has been tossing me around like a chew toy in the jaws of a pit bull—only to learn that they, too, have these moments, daily. I’d like students to know that they are not alone, and that if they are willing to share their struggles with me, I am happy to share mine, and together we can move on with the business of learning and doing.

Getting energized:��What work have you done or will you be doing at �������ý��Ƶ that gets you the most excited?

Recently, I launched myself into the field of experimental sensory ecology, which has reignited my love for research. In 2019, I designed and deployed a 100-ultrasonic speaker array in an irrigated Philippine rice paddy to test the hypothesis that the impressively intense ultrasonic chorus produced by an aggregation of tiny insects deterred foraging bats (it does). Next year on sabbatical I plan to deploy a prey cue array in a tropical understory to test whether katydids masquerading as leaves dupe not only visually orienting birds and lizards, but also echolocating bats. Are echoes returning from a leaf-mimicking insect leaf-like? These projects involve engineering, art, and science—they’re very interdisciplinary, which I love.

Going places:��Is there an example of somewhere your career has taken you (either a physical space or something more intellectual, emotional, or spiritual) that took you by surprise?

I’m presenting moth behavior research at the International Entomological Congress in Kyoto, Japan this summer. This is surprising given that I am a bat biologist. During the COVID pandemic, I was eager to continue testing hypotheses about ultrasonic katydid choruses’ effects on other ultrasonic hearing animals. Given travel restrictions, I turned my attention to lab-based experiments on moths, specifically those that both possess simple ultrasonic sensitive ears and are crop pests. Over the past two years, and with the help, focus, and creativity of several �������ý��Ƶ students, we’ve learned that intense ultrasonic insect sound—typical of rice paddies and wet meadows—reduces egg laying, and when less intense, may attract dispersing moths.

Out of the classroom

This or that:��If you weren’t teaching for a living, what would you be doing?����

I would be doing conservation work. After earning my Ph.D., I stood at a fork in the road—take a short-term opportunity leading me into the world of wildlife conservation or an academic career. I obviously chose �������ý��Ƶ but would have been just as happy spending more time in the field and working with communities living adjacent to wildlife—working to make it possible for people and wildlife to coexist. I love diversity—among people and other species—and think bringing these realms into coexistence is incredibly important work.

Right at home:��Whether for work, relaxation or reflection, what’s your favorite spot on campus?

I love walking down by the river. It’s a 20-minute loop—down Lawe Street, along the river, up Olde Oneida, and past the tennis courts back to my office. Walking the “river loop” helps me stretch out physically and mentally by attending to sounds and sights beyond the frame of my computer monitor. Winter walks promise visitors from the north—buffleheads, golden-eyes, and diving mergansers, and the Lawe Street bridge-dwelling cliff swallows and white pelicans are welcome harbingers of summer during late spring.

One book, one recording, one film:��Name one of each that speaks to your soul? Or you would recommend to a friend? Or both?

Book: Ed Yong’s��Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, because he eloquently reveals our limited experience of the world and challenged me to imagine the world through eyes, ears, lateral lines, electro-sensors, etc. of other creatures. I used this book in my Animal Behavior course, and the students loved it, too.

Recording: Patty Griffin’s song, Heavenly Day. Sometimes I’ll listen to this multiple times in a row. It reminds me to be grateful for today and for everything and everyone in it.

Film: I loved the documentary, My Octopus Teacher. It demonstrates the intimate connection that can be formed with another species, especially a wild animal. Some of my most precious life experiences are being noticed by a wild animal. Once, a palm civet ran down a tree and sat in front of me, head cocked to the side, to inspect my headlamp—what a thrill to be the object of its curiosity.

The past nine months have been particularly exciting for Weber. Starting in June 2023, she dove into summer research developing an open-source microscope. Her research centered around how to bring research-grade microscopy into the classroom by making it more cost-effective.��

Components of the microscope were either 3D printed, courtesy of the �������ý��Ƶ Makerspace, or created with easily accessible software. The replicability of the microscope makes it ideal for an undergraduate setting.��

“Because it is mostly 3D printed, we’re able to present it to other schools, and they can make it easily, so that sharing the knowledge is the goal,” Weber said.��

“I really liked the puzzle aspect of physics, and the desire to find out more about the world and figure out how it worked.”��
– Grace Weber, physics major

Weber had an exciting opportunity to share her knowledge when she and her co-worker, Joseph Carpenter, a junior math and physics major from Minneapolis, received a grant from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) to fund their continued research and work on the microscope. It also came with an opportunity to give a presentation at the Wisconsin Space Conference in August 2023.����

“Being able to share the research that I had done really helped me prepare for my future and brought me a lot of excitement,” Weber said.��

Video:

Doug Martin, associate professor of physics and Weber’s academic advisor, said working with her on the microscope has been a privilege.����

“Grace has found a great balance between listening for foundational ideas and diving in to move the project ahead,” Martin said. “I look forward to each microscope meeting, wondering, ‘what will Grace bring today? How many steps ahead is she already?’ I’m really excited to see what Grace does next.”��

Thanks to her high school credits and her fall semester study abroad experience in Amsterdam, Weber’s next step is to graduate �������ý��Ƶ in three years. Spending a semester abroad—compared to �������ý��Ƶ’s trimester schedule—allowed her to accrue more credits.����

Studying abroad in Amsterdam also allowed Weber to embrace the liberal arts foundation of a �������ý��Ƶ education—exploring new academic fields and experiencing different world views.����

“I did more social science, humanities, trying to broaden my horizons,” Weber said. “I was able to take a lot of classes about Dutch culture and general different views than I would have learned about in America.”��

Upon her return to the States, Weber took her research a step further. As part of her senior project, she is working on making the microscope capable of 3D imaging. By modifying the microscope lenses, she can code it to track a particle in three dimensions.����

Looking to the future, Weber plans to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where she will study medical physics.������

The medical physics field, Weber said, works with coding various pieces of medical equipment, such as linear accelerators, MRI scanners, and ultrasounds.��

“I want to, in the future, hopefully be a clinical medical physicist where I’d be able to work with cancer patients and create treatment plans,” Weber said.��

The process of building spectrometers requires multiple skill sets, including soldering, 3D printing, electronic wiring, and programming. Each member of the team brings an essential skill to the project, and all three are learning something new—Closson brought experience in 3D printing; McClain had experience in soldering, for example.

“Sydney and I hadn’t soldered before,” Clark said. “We’re kind of learning this as we go, which is fun, to learn new skills.”

The skills being developed will be useful long after this project concludes.

“All the skills we’re learning here, whether it’s soldering, learning how to troubleshoot, or coding—they’re applicable across a lot of different fields, and it’s going to be helpful in the future,” Closson said.

McClain has been a student in the Clark-led classes where these updated spectrometers will now be used.��

“And I did the drone research project over the summer,” she said.

McClain said working on the construction of the spectrometers gives her greater insight into the technology involved.

Clark, a member of the �������ý��Ƶ faculty since 1998, has been��leading students in field research projects using drones, GIS, and GPS to map changes in the Earth’s surface. His research has explored changes in land cover and crop phenology and the rate of bluff retreat along the Lake Michigan shoreline. His research also has helped inform renewable energy infrastructure at Björklunden.

Building their own spectrometers, though, is new territory. It’s required a lot of stopping and starting.

“I had a lot of fun troubleshooting,” Clark said. “Just trying to devise ways of testing that the connections were good.”

It remains a work in progress. Once they nail down the process of building the devices, Clark expects each unit to take 10 to 12 hours to complete.

This isn’t the first time Closson and McClain have benefited from WSGC funding. A year ago, Closson was the recipient of WSGC’s highly competitive statewide scholarship. This year that scholarship was awarded to McClain. The scholarship, separate from the grant awarded to Clark, assists individual students in their undergraduate studies.

Sazama joined the chemistry faculty at �������ý��Ƶ in 2016 following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A native of Wisconsin, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.

We caught up with Sazama to talk about interests in and out of the classroom.

In the classroom

Inside info:��What’s one thing you want every student coming into your classes to know about you?

I absolutely love science, and I believe every one of my students can enjoy it, too. I try to bring my enthusiasm for chemistry into the classroom and hope I can lead my students to see how fascinating the world can be when viewed through a scientific lens. I also think a great way to convey this enthusiasm is by lighting things on fire.��

Getting energized:��What work have you done, or will you be doing, at �������ý��Ƶ that gets you the most excited?

I have been having a great time creating a new class called Energy, Technology, and the Environment. It’s a non-majors lab science class that tackles big questions of chemistry, physics, and engineering in the context of our current environmental challenges. I get to engage students in discussions about individual technologies I’m passionate about and have done research on, like solar energy and the hydrogen economy, while also talking about the larger context behind it all. I always get a little philosophical when talking about the laws of thermodynamics, and I feel like that’s especially relevant in an interdisciplinary class like this one. We’re even getting out into the community and talking to several cleantech and green energy companies in the Appleton area, which I hope helps my students make further connections between their learning in class and the real world.��

Going places:��Is there an example of somewhere your career has taken you (either a physical space or something more intellectual, emotional, or spiritual) that took you by surprise?��

In 2018, here at LU, we had a community read of poet Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude before he came to campus for a visit. I was asked to lead a once-weekly discussion section that students could take for a single credit. I ended up with a classroom with people from all over the university, including some of my chemistry students, environmentalists, and even Professor Eilene Hoft-March from the French department. I felt like our small group really bonded over the poetry we were reading together, and it culminated in a funny, emotional, and poignant reading from Ross himself. This experience made me a total poetry convert; I have even since tried writing some of my own poetry. ��

Out of the classroom

This or that:��If you weren’t teaching for a living, what would you be doing?����

I love working with my hands and find building things very rewarding. I always told myself that my backup plan if the chemistry thing didn’t work out was to follow in my grandpa’s footsteps and be an electrician. I get to scratch that itch more often than I would’ve expected in my role as a professor here, fixing instruments and rigging up new experiments.��

Right at home:��Whether for work, relaxation, or reflection, what’s your favorite spot on campus?

It’s not relaxation exactly, but Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon at the Wellness Center. I’ve been playing the noon hour basketball game since I started working here, as often as my schedule allows. It’s a fantastic workout and especially nice on days when I need to get out of my own head. Maybe the best part, though, is that we have a great, friendly, supportive community of people from all over, including students, faculty, staff and community members. I look forward to it every time.

One book, one recording, one film:��Name one of each that speaks to your soul? Or you would recommend to a friend? Or both?

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula LeGuin: I have a very hard time choosing between recommending Ursula LeGuin, Octavia Butler, or N.K. Jemisin, as I absolutely love all three authors, but LeGuin is such a trailblazer. The Left Hand of Darkness is an exciting and thought-provoking adventure; in particular, LeGuin knows how to end her stories with the proper amount of closure and open-ended possibility.��

Liquid Anatomy, by Alkaloid: It’s a poorly kept secret that I love extreme metal music; Alkaloid has a really fun blend of groove and technical ability put together with killer songwriting. The last song on this album will have you roaring “CEPHALOPODS” right along with the singer.��

Mr. Robot: Can I use TV instead of film? If so, I think a lot of people have never heard of Mr. Robot, or if they have heard the title, they think it’s weird sci-fi about robots. There actually are no robots in this show about hackers, but it touches on themes that I find really compelling like family, late capitalism, and mental health. ��