{"id":208,"date":"2022-11-17T22:31:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T22:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/meb\/?page_id=208"},"modified":"2025-11-15T01:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:05:09","slug":"current-students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/meb\/current-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Current Graduate Program Leadership\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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President<\/h3>\n \n Anjali Bhatnagar<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Vice President<\/h3>\n \n Jenny Cheung<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Secretary\/Treasurer<\/h3>\n \n Mia Franks<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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ACE<\/h3>\n \n Danny Osorio<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Outreach and Engagement<\/h3>\n \n Mary Kate Dinneen & Rachael Peng<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Outdoor Adventure<\/h3>\n \n Bradley MacKett & Maya Gomez<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Mentorship<\/h3>\n \n Bernie Tolentino & Danny Osorio<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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MEB Tuesday Seminar Series<\/h3>\n \n Anjali Bhatnagar & Chuankai Cheng<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Student Seminar Series<\/h3>\n \n Jenna Dilworth & Ran Duan<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Retreat<\/h3>\n \n Mary Kate Dinneen & Jenny Cheung<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Recruitment<\/h3>\n \n Teagan Baiotto & Danny Osorio<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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USC GSG Representative<\/h3>\n \n Jelani Williams & Yiming Zhao<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Current Graduate Program News\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n \n \n Gerid Ollison successfully defended his thesis entitled “Marine Protistan Diversity, Spatiotemporal Dynamics, and Physiological Responses to Environmental Change” Congratulations, Dr. Ollison!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Emily Aguirre successfully defended her thesis entitled “Disentangling the ecology of bacterial communities in cnidarian holobionts” Congratulations, Dr. Aguirre!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Victoria (Celeste) Lanclos successfully defended her thesis entitled “Ecophysiology of important understudied bacterioplankton through an integrated research and education approach.” Congratulations, Dr. Lanclos!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Yingqi Zhang successfully defended her thesis entitled “Transgenerational Inheritance of Thermal Tolerance in Two Coral Species in the Florida Keys.” Congratulations, Dr. Zhang!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Maria Ruggeri successfully defended her thesis entitled “Genetic and environmental effects on symbiotic interactions across thermal gradients.” Congratulations, Dr. Ruggeri!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Anna Weiss and Anjali Bhatnagar passed their qualifying exams with flying colors! Congrats on advancing to candidacy, both of you!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Adib Mustofa gave a talk about the impacts of climate change on coral reefs at the Saving Corals event at the Fisher Museum. Great work, Adib!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n Heidi Aronson successfully defended her thesis entitled “Thermodynamics-guided cultivation of microorganisms involved in novel and understudied sulfur catabolic reactions”. Congratulations, Dr. Aronson!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Benchmarks for PhD Students\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 1, Fall<\/h3>\n \n Establish 3-person First Year Committee\r\nBISC 543, Adapt & Evolution (2 units)\r\nBISC 593 (Teaching Practicum, 2 units) + TAship\r\nBISC 580- Readings in Marine and Environmental Biology (2 cr)\r\nBISC 529 #1 (MEB Seminar, 1 unit)\r\nBISC 790 (1-5 units)\r\nMeet with First Year Committee<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 1, Spring<\/h3>\n \n BISC 584 (MEB Faculty Lecture Series, 2 units)\r\nBISC 529 #2 (MEB Seminar, 1 unit)\r\nBISC 582 (Adv. Biol. Oceanography, 4 units)\r\nBISC 589 Stats (4 cr)\r\nBISC 790 (1-5 units)\r\nFirst Year Committee research\/coursework talk<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 2, Fall<\/h3>\n \n Establish 5-person Guidance Committee\r\nBISC 529 #3 (MEB Seminar, 1 unit)\r\nAdvanced Graduate Seminar #1 (2 units)\r\nBISC 790 (1-7 units)\r\nPresent poster at research in progress at MEB symposium\r\nDiscuss Research Abstract (1-2pp) with Committee\r\n<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 2, Spring<\/h3>\n \n BISC 529 #4 (MEB Seminar, 1 unit)\r\nAdvanced Graduate Seminar #2 (2 units)\r\nBISC 585 (Scientific Writing, 2 units) \r\nComplete Research Proposition (15 pp)\r\nBISC 790 (1-5 units)<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 3, Fall<\/h3>\n \n Advanced Graduate Seminar #3 (2 units)\r\nBISC 790 (2 units)\r\nBISC 794a (2 units)\r\nQualifying Exam (written and oral)\r\n<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 3, Spring<\/h3>\n \n Advanced Graduate Seminar #4 (2 units)\r\nBISC 790 (2 units)\r\nBISC 794b (2 units)\r\nPresent 20 min research in progress at Tuesday seminar\r\nEstablish 4-person Dissertation Committee<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 4, Fall<\/h3>\n \n BISC 790 (1-4 units, if necessary)\r\nBISC 794c (2 units)\r\nMeet with Dissertation Committee<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 4, Spring<\/h3>\n \n ISC 790 (1-4 units, if necessary)\r\nBISC 794d (2 units)\r\nPresent 30 min research in progress at Tuesday Seminar<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 5, Fall<\/h3>\n \n BISC 790 (1-6 units, if necessary)\r\nBISC 794z (0 units)\r\nMeet with Dissertation Committee<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Year 5, Spring<\/h3>\n \n BISC 790 (1-6 units, if necessary)\r\nBISC 794z (0 units)\r\nPh.D. Defense!<\/span>\n \n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Graduate Student Resources\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n