UA Undergraduate Wins Competitive Marine Microbiology Internship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama student Zoe Nichols, a sophomore from Tuscaloosa majoring in marine science and biology with a minor in geology, has earned a prestigious four-week internship at Wrigley Marine Science Center on Santa Catalina Island off California.

The internship, which is organized by the University of Southern California under the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigation Program, aims at promoting undergraduate research in marine sciences. Nichols will be participating in a global environmental microbiology course that teaches field and laboratory techniques in marine microbiology and oceanography.

The experience will advance Nichols’ ongoing undergraduate research investigating algae blooms off of the Alabama Gulf Coast. She says her research, performed under the guidance of Dr. Natasha T. Dimova, assistant professor in the department of geological sciences at UA, will bring awareness to the impact that humans have on ocean ecology.

“Nutrient pollution and nutrient over-enrichment in the surface water of coastal areas has become a serious problem for our coastlines in the last decades,” Nichols said.

“I applied to the C-DEBI summer program to get more research, lab and field experience, which will be extremely useful for me, because everything I learn in California on DNA and microbiology can be applied to the research I am working on (in Alabama),” she said.

Nichols plans to obtain a doctorate in a marine science field and dedicate her career plans to marine conservation.

The biology and geology departments are part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.