A UF student has made a splash in the marine science community.
Monica Camacho, 19, was awarded a $1,000 travel scholarship to present research she collected this past summer at the national conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in January.
The scholarship was awarded to her by the National Science Foundation, which also funded the Research Experience for Undergraduate program at UF’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience.
“I was interested in doing research to see if that was something that I wanted to do in the future because I love the sciences, and I found the Whitney Lab,” Camacho, an environmental engineering sophomore, said.
Camacho said she first became interested in Marine Biology while growing up in Key Largo, Florida.
Camacho earned one of eight competitive internship spots in the Research Experience for Undergraduate program this summer, where she gathered data on the ecological impact of black mangrove trees expanding into saltmarsh ecosystems.
Camacho worked on the coastal and marine ecology project with Todd Osborne, UF assistant professor of estuarine biogeochemistry, during her internship in St. Augustine, Florida.
The program at the Whitney Laboratory is a paid, 11-week internship that received about 230 applicants last year.
Alumni of the program go on to be successful in various science careers, said Jessica Long, the director of development and external relations for Whitney Laboratory.
“They are science writers, science teachers, several are physicians, and one of them is now a professor at Penn State who is doing research,” Long said.
At the January conference, Camacho will attend alongside a variety of scientists from marine biologists to environmental scientists to geneticists, Osborne said.
“The conference is a good opportunity for her to present work to a large audience, and it gives her the opportunity to explore different fields (of science),” he said.
Camacho was awarded the travel scholarship after submitting a poster of her data to the National Science Foundation.
During her internship, Camacho took part in a science communication course that she said will help her present her data at the national conference in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“I’m excited to explain research that no one has ever done before,” she said.
But Camacho isn’t stopping with her presentation. Osborne and Camacho are working to publish a paper based on the data Camacho has collected over the summer.
She is in the process of writing rough drafts of manuscripts and having Osborne give her feedback.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 10/1/2014 ]
