WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2019 17 WAS and USAS Student Awards at Aquaculture 2019 WAS Student Spotlight Competition A special session was held at Aquaculture 2019 that highlighted student scholars from each of the aquaculture professional societies represented at the conference. Prior to the conference, each society evaluated student research submissions to determine the top student researchers. In all, eleven student scholars were invited to present at the Student Spotlight Seminar, which consisted of an abbreviated (three-minute) version of their presentation. A panel of judges was formed from EXCOM members of the different societies at the meeting. The reduction in presentation time and number of slides challenged the students to present their work in novel ways. The winner of the Spotlight Competition received $500 with the second and third place winners both receiving $200 each. The winner of the Student Spotlight Competition was Laura Spencer from the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington for her presentation on “Parental low pH exposure affects reproduction and larval gene expression in the Olympia oyster.” The two runner-up winners were Michael Acquafredda from Rutgers University for his presentation on “Possible niche partitioning among four ecologically and economically important filter-feeding bivalves: A case study of LEFT TO RIGHT: Laura Spencer, Michael Acquafredda, Harsha Galkanda-Arachchige, Diplina Paul (right) with advisor Dr. Steve Hall. LEFT TO RIGHT: Nathan Kring (right) with advisor Dr. Andrew Ray, DaNelle Ellington (left) with advisor Casey Murray, Sarah Bodenstein (left) with advisor Dr. Bill Walton. LEFT TO RIGHT: Katie McCann (center) with advisors Drs. Steve Rawles and Rebecca Lochmann, Kelsey Bisker (left) with advisor Dr. Bill Walton, Sarah Hensey (right) with advisor Dr. Bill Walton, Erin Gaglias (right) with advisor Joseph Szczebak. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 18)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=