Join AltaSea for a webinar with 3 PhD candidates from UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Laura Lilly, Camille Pagniello, and Sarah Maher.

Panelists

Laura Lilly is a 6th-year Ph.D. candidate in Biological Oceanography in Mark Ohman’s lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research focuses on how El Niño events impact the zooplankton community off California. She is a sea-going oceanographer with a long history of spending time on boats at sea, including several month-long sailing trips across the Equatorial Pacific. Laura is passionate about sustainability and conservation and has served for the past four years as a co-founder and co-leader of the Scripps Sustainability Group, which aims to bring more sustainable practices to Scripps and UCSD. She believes strongly in the value of scientific education and outreach, and has developed and taught short “Introduction to Oceanography” programs for several high schools around San Diego County. In addition to oceanography, Laura loves to play horse polo, surf in Baja California, photograph waves, run, and learn new languages.

Sarah Maher received a BSc. in physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria in Canada and a MS in geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she worked on plate tectonic reconstructions. She is currently a 6th year earth science PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography working with Dr. Jeffrey Gee.

Sarah’s present research focuses on using magnetic techniques to examine how the ocean crust cools. This involved a 35 day cruise to Pito Deep off the coast of Easter Island where she collected magnetic and bathymetry data and rock samples. Sarah also helped to design a 10 day cruise to the Fieberling seamount chain as a co-chief scientist, allowing graduate students to learn geoscience methods at sea.

Camille Pagniello is a sixth-year PhD student majoring in Applied Ocean Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Pagniello considers herself to be somewhat of an ocean “MacGyver” – part marine biologist, part physicist, part engineer. Her research interests lie at the intersection of acoustics and geophysics, robotics, marine animals, and sustainable management of natural resources. She is currently using passive acoustics and optical imaging to identify the sounds of commercially and recreationally important fish species and to locate their spawning areas.

Camille has spent over 80 days at sea, including time as Chief Scientist of the Kelp Acoustic Propagation Experiment (APE), an experiment that she proposed and designed as a graduate student to study the influence of kelp on low-frequency sound propagation. Her ultimate goal is to contribute to the basic scientific understanding of the biological and physical processes in the ocean to further ocean conservation efforts.

Before attending Scripps, Pagniello completed her BSc Honors Co-op in Marine Biology and Physics with minors in Mathematics and Ocean Sciences at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. You can find Camille on Twitter @FishySounds and Instagram @fishysounds where she posts images of San Diego’s kelp forests every Friday as part of #KelpForestFridays, or check out her website.

Moderator

Moderating the webinar will be the multi-Emmy award-winning journalist, Val Zavala. Zavala spent 30 years as a broadcast journalist at KCET in Los Angeles, winning numerous journalism awards. During her career, Zavala has covered a broad spectrum of Southern California issues, including politics, the environment, and the economy.