WHOI Ocean Ventures Fund Recipients

The intent of the Ocean Ventures Fund is to promote research and innovation by encouraging graduate students to take chances for their thesis research or for developing their thesis project.

OVF is open to all students in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering.  The research idea and the proposal text must come from the graduate student, not his/her supervisor.  The student is the Principal Investigator.

For further information, please contact the Vice President for Academic Programs and Dean.

Recent OVF recipients and their project titles

2020 Recipients

Brenna Boehman
Residence time of soil organic carbon chemical constituents in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin

Cory Berger
The molecular basis of sensory integration in the circadian clock of Nematostella vectensis

Emmanuel Codillo
Thermodynamic and experimental constraints on the extent and conditions of serpentinization in subduction zones

Blake Cole
Development of a wind-driven autonomous surface vessel for oceanographic research applications

Lauren Dykman
The diversity and ecology of parasites at deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Mara Freilich
Quantifying the contribution of physical and ecological processes to oxygen variability

Kalina Grabb
Investigating reactive oxygen species (ROS) dynamics associated with coral reefs in context with environmental parameters in New Caledonia

Alia Hidayat
Identification of molecular targets of the HAB toxin domoic acid

Jennifer Karolewski
Exploring linkages between metals, methane, and microbial communities

Arianna Krinos
Without a trace: characterizing Emiliania huxleyi selenium physiology

Sheron Luk
Assessing the impact of pond recovery on the salt marsh carbon budget

Lei Ma
Gene-environment-microbiome interactions in the Atlantic killifish

Craig McLean
Group-specific metabolic patterns distinguish phytoplankton and indicate nutrient stress status

Julia Middleton
Catching silicon-barium cycle decoupling in the act

Nathan Mollica
Application of a novel paleo-thermometer to reconstruct 20th century SSTs in the central equatorial Pacific

Jordan Pitt
Impacts of nanopolystyrene exposure on zebrafish (Danio rerio) blood-brain barrier permeability and function

Victoria Preston
Developing intelligent observatories for geochemical monitoring of volcanic activity

Mallory Ringham
Characterizing variabilities in carbonate saturation states and impacts on biodiversity at Sage Lot Pond

Shari Rohret
Towards a geochemical proxy: benthic foraminifera living in chemoclines of karst basins

Lina Taenzer
Analysis of volatile organic compound production by coralline algae as an indication of organismal stress

Shawnee Traylor
Dating dissolved methane in a coastal Arctic system

Jane Weinstock
Ocean warming in the Western North Atlantic: potential phenological changes in the barnacle Seminbalanus balanoides

Ciara Willis
Trophic ecology of two top predators in the ocean twilight zone, bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius)

2019 Recipients

Jessica Dabrowski
The Kolyma River Filter: A Carbon and Nutrient Source to the Arctic Ocean

Jennifer Kenyon
Investigating the applicability of the U-238:Th-234 disequilibrium method to estimate trace metal fluxes

Sheron Luk
Evaluating the impact of anthropogenic ditching on salt marsh carbon storage and sustainability

Julia Middleton
Quantifying the length scale of Ba-isotopic exchange in marine barite

Ryan O'Shea
Spectral Super-resolution from the Recombination of Multiple Diffraction Orders

Mallory Ringham
High resolution carbonate chemistry mapping across deep sea coral reefs

Kevin Sutherland
Determination of the Impact of Photochemistry on Triple Oxygen Isotope Estimates of Gross Primary Production

Zachary Tobias
Admixture and evolutionary adaptation in an invasive tunicate

2018 Recipients

Emmanuel Codillo
Origin of volatile enrichment in St. Paul's popping rock

Michaela Fendrock
Carbonate deposit morphologies as a proxy for the paleohydrology of the American Southwest

Mara Freilich
Effect of vertical motion on phytoplankton distributions

Meghan Jones
Evaluating vertical motions on oceanic detachment faults using volatile saturation as a paleobarometer

Nathaniel Mollica
Investigating signatures of bleaching in coral skeletons using experiments and models

Ryan O'Shea
Identifying the optimal view angle for polarization based sky-glint removal for drone-borne water quality parameter estimation

Matthew Osman
Industrial-era onset of a subarctic Atlantic productivity decline

Taylor Sehein
Novel application of third generation sequencing technology for studying protist parasites

Benjamin Urann
The water and halogen content of primitive arc magmas: inferences from lower crustal cumulates